Nii Armah Ashietey, Minister of Employment & Labour Relations, has called for accelerated capacity building for indigenes in Ghana’s oil and gas sector to enable them service oil rigs competently.

During the opening of the second African Regional Conference organized by LO-Norway and Trades Union Congress (TUC) in Accra on the theme: “Oil for development – Making oil a blessing, not a curse,” Nii Ashietey said one of the critical ways to ensure the effective participation of citizens in the oil and gas sector is to ensure the effectual implementation of local content policy.

According to him, the Labour Department of the ministry will conduct periodic labour inspection of industrial establishments and other workplaces including the oil and gas sector to ensure compliance with the labour laws, regulations and standards by employers and employees.

He said that environmental pollution will also receive urgent attention to ensure that development takes place in environmentally-sustainable manner.

Nii Ashietey said government had introduced policies and programmes to ensure that oil revenues were used in the best interest of citizens, adding that “Ghana is a signatory to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initial (EITI) that seeks to bring transparency and accountability in the management of our petroleum revenues.”

He therefore urged Ghanaians to train adequately to attain the laudable feat. Kofi Asamoah, Secretary General of Trades Union Congress (TUC), said though Ghana has not performed abysmally in its third year of oil production, there were signs that the country faces the threat of Dutch diseases.

“In 2011, when overall economic growth hit a record 14 percent, agriculture grew by less than 1 percent, manufacturing growth rate was negative. According to him, political polarisation had reached levels that threatened danger for the country’s stability.

Mr. Asamoah said trade unions on the continent could play useful roles in changing the situation by mobilising workers for collective action. He said by organizing and undertaking collective bargaining, workers conditions could be improved in the oil and gas industry.

However, he noted: “We need to organize and use our collective strength for policy engagement with government and also the multinational corporations in the oil and gas industry”.

Mr. Asamoah said there were a number of issues that government needed to address, including the current legislation governing the extraction industry which was overly generous to foreign companies.