BOST, Ghana Gas Featured In Maiden Edition Of SIGA’s Agenda To Pitch Successes Of Specified Entities

The Director-General of State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), Stephen Asamoah Boateng under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Enterprises has begun pitching the successes of the specified entities.

According to him, the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) as part of its mandate given by President Akufo-Addo to ensure that the State-Owned Enterprises, Joint Venture Companies and Other State Entities yield positive returns to the citizens, the Authority has created a platform for them to tell Ghanaians their successful stories.

Speaking to the media at the maiden edition of SIGA media engagement which featured BOST and Ghana Gas, Stephen Asamoah Boateng explained that the Authority intends to make the specified entities render accounts of their stewardship to Ghanaians as the government continues to invest in their operations.

He added that such an engagement with the specified entities will give the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA) the opportunity to ascertain the performance of the government’s investment in the public enterprises and also convince the government to invest more in their operations.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana Gas, Dr Ben KD Asante in his presentation to tell the success of the company said that the company in March 2017 replaced Chinese Operators with Ghanaian Operators.

Dr KD Asante noted that the indigenization of their operation has saved $3.5 million [20 million Ghc] a month in operating cost; thus, it took Trinidad 40 years to fully indigenize, Nigeria 50 years but Ghana Gas took less than 3 years to indigenize.

He stressed that Ghana Gas has built solid intellectual capital with their men and women engineers and technicians to handle the operations of the company without any support from any foreign national.

Ghana Gas, according to the CEO has ensured power supply with increased gas flow from 2017 with 85MMscfd to 100MMscfd in 2021 from the Jubilee/TEN Gas. He added that from the Sankofa Gas, in 2017, there was an increment of 85MMscfd but it reduced to 50 in 2018, increase to 70 in 2019 and in 2020 and 2021, the gas flow increased to 140MMscfd and 180MMscfd respectively.

Touching on the LPG, Dr Ben KD Asante revealed that Ghana Gas in 2017 increased the flow of gas to 311 tonnes a day in 2017 as against 221 tonnes in 2016 a day. He scored that LPG flow has increased from 322 tonnes a day in 2018 to 385 tonnes a day in 2021.

The Managing Director of Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited, Mr Edwin Provencal in his presentation indicated that the company has cleared its legacy trade debt of $568 million and also cleared Ghs58.4 million GCB loan as well as $20 million UBA loan.

He again mentioned that BOST has managed to clear StanChart loan which was negotiated from Ghs137million to Ghs100 million and then UMB loan of about $10 million has been cleared. He added that BOST has reduced from $36 million to $10 million BDC claims from 2009 to 2014.

Mr Edwin Provencal indicated in his presentation that BOST has repaired 6 tanks at APD, Buipe and Bolga and rehabilitated 6 Tema-Akosombo Petroleum Pipeline and many other things that hindered operations of BOST.

The Managing Director of BOST, however, noted that the management performance of the company has made a profit of GHS31 million; thus, it has turned out its debt and started making a profit.

In his closing remark, Stephen Asamoah Boateng indicated that the presentations of BOST and Ghana Gas are the maiden edition of pitching the successes of the specified entities to Ghanaians; thus, other state-owned companies will be given the opportunity once every week to share their successes from now to the end of the year.