Skip to main content

Govt. urged to list 70% of GNPC, TOR on stock exchange


By: Fred Yaw Sarpong

Government has been asked to offload not less than 70% each shares of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) for Ghanaians to buy into these companies.

“Offloading the companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) will help the management and board of these companies to raise enough money to boost the standard of the companies,” Dr. Steve Manteaw, co-chair of Ghana’s Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) said in Accra.

According to him, this will also save the companies from collapsing. “This will let Ghanaians to become part owners of the companies and make decisions as well. The process will also enhance efficiency,” he added.

At a political forum in Accra recently, some political parties were of the view that GNPC should be scrapped off, reason been that the company is not serving the interest of Ghanaians and not performing as well.

Others also believed that the GNPC should have the capacity to own it oil blocks if it wants to be a player in the industry.

But Dr. Manteaw said he is against any decision to scrap off institutions because they are not performing. “I believe that whatever is broken can be fixed,” he added.

He mentioned that the problem with GNPC has to do with excessive governmental control. “The situation where we put GNPC on the national budget, feeding it like a baby which never grows must stop,” he urged the government.

“We have gotten to a point where we have to take off GNPC from the national budget and let GNPC go and fed for itself,” said Dr. Manteaw. 

He cited the then Ghana Commercial Bank which was then controlled by the government. “A decision was taken to offload government stake on the GSE and it was oversubscribed. Today GCB is a successful business venture,” he pointed out.

Dr. Manteaw said GNPC in the same manner can be offloaded on the stock market so that individual Ghanaians can become owners of their national oil company.

He said similar things happen in other countries like Norway where national oil companies are offloaded for the citizenry to own part of the firms.

“When we go to Annual General Meeting (AGM) we can decided whether or not we are happy with GNPC performance and change management when we want to change them,” he stated.

Commenting on the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), the Campaign Coordinator of Integrated Social Development (ISODEC) said the problem with the Ghana’s oil refinery is inefficiency that arises on treating TOR as a dumping ground of party foot soldiers adding to the overhaul of the operational cost of TOR. 

He said “if we are to float TOR on the GSE and individual Ghanaians buy into the company, we can then introduce accountability on which the company operates and this dumping of foot soldiers on TOR will stop and we can see turnaround of the company’s fortune.”

He called for majority stake in GNPC and TOR to be given to Ghanaians so that government becomes a minority shareholder.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vodafone sells 45% shares in Verizon for US$130 billion

Vodafone has sold its 45% stake in Verizon Wireless to US telecoms group Verizon Communications in one of the biggest deals in corporate history. The US$130 billion (£84bn) deal was announced by Vodafone after the close of trading on the London Stock Exchange. The company will return £54 billion to its shareholders, of which £22 billionn will go to shareholders in the UK. Vodafone will also invest money in its business, with funds earmarked for high speed mobile phone networks. It said that by 2017 its main five European markets would have almost complete 4G coverage. Possibly it would be wrong to carp and wring hands that Vodafone won't be paying a penny of tax to the British taxman” Vodafone group chairman Gerard Kleisterlee said: "The transaction will position Vodafone strongly to pursue our leadership strategy in mobile and unified communication services for consumers and enterprises, both in our developed markets and across our emerging markets businesses." The...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shortage of weighing cards hit major hospitals in Accra

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong- Daily Express There is scarcity of Child Health Records Book (weighing cards), in some major public hospitals in the capital, information reaching the Daily Express indicates. Checks by this paper revealed that while some of the hospitals have being encountering the shortage for about a year now, others started experiencing it six months ago. In place of the Child Health Record Book (weighing card), the nursing mothers are given a single card on which information of children are recorded on it. Those hospitals identified are the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Korle Bu Polyclinic, Kaneshie Polyclinic, Adabraka Polyclinic and the Ridge Hospital. At the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the nursing mothers are given yellow cards in place of the weighing cards. The Public Relations Secretariat at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital said such information has not come to their notice and for that matter they cannot comment on it. “We do not have some ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ABL launches chibuku super in Bolgatanga

By: Fred Yaw Sarpong sarpong007@gmail.com Accra Brewery Limited (ABL) has officially launched the Chibuku Super drink at Bolgatanga in the Upper East region with the aim of reaching a lot of customers. Mr. Thomas Nii Ponku, Supervisor in charge of Chibuku Super at ABL told Daily Express that the management decided to launch the Chibuku Super drink in the Upper East region because they’ve realized it is similar to a traditional drink in the region. “Chibuku is like a well developed pito, a traditional drink made from fermented millet or sorghum in the Northern part of Ghana. So the idea is to provide them with similar drink,” he added. Mr. Nii Ponku disclosed this when members of the Institute of Finance and Economic Journalists (IFEJ) toured the facility of ABL to acquaint themselves with the expansion project at the factory. He mentioned that after a feasibility study, they realized there is a potential market for the product in the northern part of Ghana ...
Post a Comment
Read more