The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has held a day’s sensitisation workshop for commercial drivers to equip them with the requisite knowledge on petroleum pricing and quality.
The day’s event comes on the back of the recent continuous hike in petroleum prices on the global market due to the rippling effect of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Opening the forum, the Chief Executive Officer of the NPA, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, said the government had instituted a number of measures to ensure an adequate supply of petroleum products on the market.
“I have seen videos of mates actually in fisticuffs with passengers. You are upset about petroleum price increases and so on. All of those things came to our attention, and it is as a result of a lack of knowledge on how we arrive at these petroleum prices,” he said.
So that you understand that, petroleum prices don’t go up and down depending on the mood of the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, or they don’t go up and down depending on the mood of the Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority,” he explained.
“It is important for us all as Ghanaians to understand how all these comes about, because now we all listen to radio and we can see that there is a worldwide crisis, there is crisis in Britain, there is crisis in America of all proportion, I am sure most of you are shocked that America is now airlifting baby food from Germany, ” he added.
Head, Economic Regulation at the National Petroleum Authority, AbassTasunti took the participants through the dynamics and what goes into petroleum pricing in Ghana.
He emphasised that government has put in place a number of measures to ensure the country does not experience shortage of petroleum products which is being experienced in oil producing countries like Nigeria.
Tasunti mentioned that the recent reduction of fuel margins in collaboration with the Oil marketing Companies ‘OMCs’ and intervention of the Bank of Ghana in the forex market had help to cushion consumers.
Some participants described the forum as beneficial and enlightening.
“This meeting is an eye opener to us, we will go back and share the knowledge with our colleagues and return to further dialogue with the NPA ,” one of the participant summarised.
They, however, called on the NPA to step up effort in dealing with adulterated fuel from some filling stations in the country.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, described the workshop as timely.