Partners in the Jubilee Oil Field in the Tano Basin in the Jomoro Municipality, have been reminded to implement the local content policy to spearhead the rapid socio-economic development of communities in the area.
According to opinion leaders and stakeholders in the Jomoro Municipality, the local content policy which was passed under has been neglected as the jubilee partners had nothing to show as regards social intervention in the areas of healthcare, education, care for the aged and less-privileged and the human resource development.
The Convention People’s Party(CPP) Parliamentary Candidate in the December 2020 elections, Mr. Patrick Ekye-Kwesie told the GNA in an interview that it behooved on the jubilee partners to be mindful of their corporate social responsibility to Fastrack development in Jomoro.
According to him, Jomoro abounds in a lot of natural and human resources but remained untapped to spearhead growth and development.
The CPP Parliamentary Candidate who is also an Industrial Consultant, said as a major architect of development in Jomoro, the Municipality had been totally neglected but ironically housed Ghana’s unprecedented hydrocarbon deposits, a situation which raised the expectations of indigenes in the area higher and stronger for better living conditions as most of their cash crops were getting destroyed and depleted with the exploration of oil in commercial quantities.
Mr.Ekye-Kwesie observed that the Tano Basin had a top-notch hydrocarbon prospect in which the local people needed to be involved and be part of all phases.
He reminded the jubilee partners that the hydrocarbon industry was a classic global business so “we in Jomoro shouldn’t be short-changed for what we are doing”.
On the road network, he deplored the bad nature of the road especially from Samenye to the District capital which he noted was a leadership problem, adding that with a dynamic leader to harness resources prudently,” Jomoro can survive without Central government”.
Mr.Ekye-Kwesie reminded the jubilee partners that “you cannot take our resources and just neglect the stakeholder and deal with a group of people in a small office who do not even know where Jomoro is located”.
He said “as the California and Venice of Africa, the jubilee partners should not take things for granted as the youth was realizing all the loopholes.
He said the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) and Turnkey systems in development where most of the resources were used as equity in development in the Kwame Nkrumah era revolutionized more industries in the country.
He described residents of Jomoro as peeved due to the absence of communal engagement as “someone will sit somewhere and be recruiting people to our land to eat whereas that is not what the local content law says”.
He likened the frustrations among the people to the situation in Nigeria, Sudan, and other countries where violence had characterized oil exploration due to hardships among people around the oil rig.
Mr.Ekye-Kwesie advised that “if we put partisan interest aside and construct the Jetty Port at Bonyere-Domunli enclave, we will be shocked about the development that will come out”.
The CPP Candidate who told the GNA of his readiness to partner the development of his constituency, said,” I have personally spearheaded various conglomerates but the frustration is something else”.
He said he secured a lot of interest and pleaded for Ghana to encourage inland drilling of petrochemicals particularly natural gas and isopentane.
Mr.Ekye-Kwesie said he had angel investors interested in the jetty port development and the Jaway Wharf exploration campaign and identified Jomoro as a bleeding ground that amounted to national security threats as a result of the porous nature of their land.
He said the Naval Base installation was right but advised the government to invest in intelligence gatherings because hydrocarbon comes with diverse benefits.
On the way forward he said,” I am ready to share my resources and research with the municipality which I do often on bauxite, silica sand, gold, kaolin, limestone, manganese, and granite which have commercial viability to monetize them through private sector participation.