The Oxford Business Group (OBG), a global publisher and consultancy, in partnership with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), on Wednesday held a lecture on “The Impact of the Energy Sector on the Ghanaian Economy.

The attention of participants, mainly students from the University of Ghana, lecturers and the academic community, were drawn to the sector in Ghana and how it could be harnessed to better the lives of the citizenry and improve national development.

The programme was to open a discussion about the energy sector among participants and source for ideas for improvement.

Mr Alex Mould, Acting Chief Executive, GNPC, in address read for him on; "The Role of Oil and Gas in Economic Development," said local content and skills development was critical to ensure that Ghana played an active role in the oil and gas sector.

He said great opportunities existed in the sector to positively impact the lives of the people, but there was the need for increased participation by the state, therefore, the GNPC had, among other things, instituted programmes and scholarships for skills development for the youth in oil and gas to enhance employment.

He narrated how in 2011 oil revenue inflow into Ghana’s economy served as a boost to an unprecedented Gross Economic Product (GDP) growth rate of 14.1 per cent on the back of increased economic activity in the sector, and changed the country’s status from a net importer to a net exporter of crude oil as a result of the Jubilee Oil production.

The industry had brought in significant Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and foreign exchange, catalyzed GDP growth and added value to the Ghanaian economy.

He said energy was a major requirement for economic growth and development and had a direct link between energy use, economic growth and standard of living, and that the past and recent power outages demonstrated the problem and projections of demand and supply, therefore, reliability and cost of power hinged on adequate and secure supply of natural gas.

He said gas had the potential to alleviate the power outages plaguing the country, was cheaper and more economically friendly than other fuel for power generation and price advantage of using gas to generate power brought enormous economic benefits to the industry.

Mr Mould said making the petroleum sector an integral part of the wider economy had enabled resources from the sector to provide the opportunity to bridge the national infrastructure gap, the institutional and national skills gap in the oil and gas industry and allied sectors to ensure greater employment of Ghanaians.

He said to achieve success the right policies, laws, regulations and institutions with capacity to enforce compliance had to be put in place to ensure the realisation of the full benefits of the oil find.

He said oil and gas could not transform the country’s fortune by itself and any transformation could not happen overnight, but it would take well-planned and co-ordinated efforts to fully realise and retain the benefits of oil and gas operations for the people of Ghana.

Mr Mould said inspite of the achievement and critical role of this sector, Ghanaian local content in terms of ownership of stake, ownership of vessels, equipment, direct employment, goods and services among other things was very insignificant.

Mr Robert Tashima, Regional Editor of OBG, Africa, said even though there were huge misconceptions by western potential investors about Africa being too risky, unsafe, single market, and being historically underdeveloped, there were numerous potentials for investment and development.

According to him reliable data in Africa was difficult to come by to enable investors to understand basic market dynamics and urged students to seize the opportunity to fill the void and also contribute effectively by telling the story about the continent to discuss what "Africa Rising" actually meant.