Ghana: Press zooms in on inauguration of 1st private oil refinery in Ghana, others

APA – Accra (Ghana)
The inauguration of Ghana’s first private oil refinery by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo with a firm assurance to revamp the state-owned Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and bring it back on track dominates the headlines of the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has inaugurated Ghana’s first private oil refinery with a firm assurance to revamp the state-owned Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and bring it back on track.
Constructed by Sentuo Group, Ghana, a Chinese conglomerate, at the Tema Industrial Area, the first phase of the new refinery is expected to process an initial stage 40,000 barrels per day and then scale-up to 100,000 barrels per day by the end of the year.
The second phase of the facility is expected to be completed this year and would increase its capacity to five million barrels per year.
Inaugurating the new facility at a very colourful ceremony in Tema last Friday, President Akufo-Addo said his government was committed to revamping the Tema Oil Refinery and would stop at nothing to ensure that such important state asset was operational.
“The challenges of another domestic oil refinery, the Tema Oil Refinery, are well documented. Nonetheless, I want to assure the Ghanaian people that the Government remains committed to the full operationalisation of TOR, and we will stop at nothing to bring it back on stream so that together with Sentuo, more and more of our oil will be refined right here in Ghana,” he emphasised.
President Akufo-Addo said the establishment of the new refinery was a significant milestone towards the country’s energy independence, industrialisation and economic prosperity.
“This project represents not just the brick and mortar, but also a symbol of our determination to shape our destiny, strengthen our economy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and inspire investment in our economy.”
The newspaper says that the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, MP, has underscored the importance of value addition to the successful and responsible harnessing of natural resources, while urging African countries to follow the blueprint being implemented by the government of Ghana.
Delivering a speech at the ongoing African Prosperity Dialogue last Thursday, the Lands Minister underlined the key role value addition played in the economic fortunes of African countries and implored African countries to institute measures that would ensure that min-eral resources were exploited effectively.
Touching on the theme of the Conference, “Delivering Prosperity in Africa: Produce, Add Value and Trade,” Mr Jinapor identified value addition and local participation as the two principles which were fundamental to the extraction of more value mineral resources and making the extractive sector the bedrock of economic turnaround.
He stated that the pre-colonial practice of “digging and shipping” should make way for addition of value to the minerals as it enhances the revenue generation capacity of the country which would culminate into the transformation of the economy.
To encourage the other countries to chart the same path as Ghana, the Minister outlined some policy interventions made by the Ghana government which were already bearing fruits.
“We cannot transform our economies if we continue to dig and ship!!! That is why since assuming office in 2017, Ghana’s President, Akufo-Addo, has been working to ensure that we add value to our mineral resources. Today, for the first time in our country, Government has established, through a Public Private Partnership, a four hundred kilogramme (400kg) gold refinery to refine the gold we produce, and we are working to secure a London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Certification,” he stated.
The Graphic reports that the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) collected a tax revenue of GH¢113.06 billion last year, GH¢3.87 billion more than it was tasked to collect.
The performance represents a nominal growth rate of 49.3 per cent over the 2022 fiscal year, which the GRA described as the highest ever in the last 20 years.
For the 2023 fiscal year, the authority was tasked to collect GH₵106 billion in tax revenue, representing a 40 per cent growth over the GH¢75.71 billion collected for 2022. The revenue target was later revised to GH₵109.19 billion.
In an interview, the Commissioner-General of GRA, Rev. Dr Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, said: “I am happy to announce that we recorded a year-on-year growth of 49.3 per cent, the highest ever recorded in the last 20 years and the highest tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of 14.1 per cent in the last six years.
He said the authority’s target was revised in the 2023 Mid-Year Budget to GH₵109.19 billion which was an upward adjustment of GH₵3.20 billion or three per cent.
Rev. Dr Owusu-Amoah said domestic tax revenue grew by 54 per cent and contributed 73 per cent of the total revenue raised in the year, whereas tax revenue from international trade, also referred to as customs duties, grew by 38.2 per cent and contributed 27 per cent to total tax revenue.
In 2023, tax revenue growth, the Commissioner-General said, more than doubled within two years, a feat which occurred only in 2011 and 2012 when the country started the production of crude oil in commercial quantities.
The authority has also recorded the highest ever tax buoyancy, the efficiency and responsiveness of tax revenue mobilisation to growth in the economy, of 1.5 in 2021 and also 2023.
The newspaper says that Ghana has started a process to ensure that all Africans entering the country’s borders do so visa free, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.
The move, which would be implemented before the end of the year, is geared towards ensuring easy movement of goods, services and people within the continent to foster economic prosperity as part of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
President Akufo-Addo revealed this yesterday when he opened the second edition of the African Prosperity Dialogues at the Peduase Presidential Lodge, near Aburi in the Eastern Region.
The African Prosperity Network (APN) organised the high-level public-private matchmaking event in collaboration with the AfCFTA Secretariat.
“The government of Ghana is committed to ensuring visa free for all Africans travelling to our country and the process has begun to get the policy implemented this year, that is before I leave office,” President Akufo-Addo stated.
The three-day business and policy dialogue which has attracted representatives of heads of state and government and policymakers as well as leaders of business and industry has been described as an excellent initiative aimed at facilitating dialogue towards the AfCFTA initiative.
It also provides a unique platform dedicated to mobilising Africa’s energetic private sector to own and drive the benefits AfCFTA presents.
GIK/APA