Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Security (IES), Nana Amoasi VII, has urged the newly appointed Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, to prioritize resolving issues pertaining to fuel smuggling, cylinder recirculation and the continues rise in fuel prices at the pumps.

President Akufo-Addo in a letter dated June 17th, appointed Dr. Abdul-Hamid as the new head of the regulator of the petroleum downstream industry in Ghana.

In a letter announcing the appointment, Nana Akufo-Addo reminded his former Deputy National Campaign Manager that the appointment comes at a time when the petroleum sector is faced with challenges following the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Speaking to Citi Business News on the new appointment, Nana Amoasi VII enumerated some key issues the new CEO needs to prioritize at the start of his tenure.

“Over the last few years, we’ve heard of incidence of fuel smuggling. When fuel is smuggled, it takes away the needed revenue from the government. So as a supervisor, NPA has a lot of work to do to block all leakages and create a level playing field for all fuel importers and marketers. The next thing is the cylinder recirculation model, which they tried implementing some years back. We’ve not seen any clear plan. We would advise that they take it off the table as it is deterring investments and disrupting planning for these LPG marketers.”

“The next has been the consistent, persistent increase in the price of fuel, and we find that the levies and margins supervised by the NPA contribute to the high cost of fuel in the country. Levies and margins make up about 40% of the price of a litre of petrol diesel and the other products, which affects the price of goods and services and ends up hurting the same economy you want to uplift. Adulteration of products on the markets and poor quality of service by Oil Marketing Companies,” he added.