Oil, gas can’t be Ghana’s major economic pillar overnight – Mahama

President John Mahama has said Ghana’s growing oil and gas sector is still trailing behind other major sectors of the economy, and noted that Ghanaians must manage their expectations of that sector “suddenly” becoming the major pillar of the West African country’s economy.

“Managing our people’s expectations in respect of entering the oil and gas era is one of the things we need to do,” Mahama said in an interview with Aljazeera Sunday night.

“Oil and gas sector is not going to suddenly, overnight, become the major sector in Ghana,” he emphasised.

The President said despite the potential, which oil and gas hold for Ghana’s economy, the country’s traditional sources of foreign exchange are still the major pillars of the economy.

“We still have sectors that traditionally have been the greatest contributor to GDP. Cocoa has been a very reliable sector for Ghana for many years and still is the largest contributor to our export earnings. After that you have gold.

“You Know Ghana used to be called the Gold Coast and it is one of the top ten exporters of gold. We export about 100 tonnes of gold a year and then you have tourism – because of the tradition of the slave trade – we have some advantages when it comes to issues of tourism, and you probably would have some sectors before oil comes in,” Mahama noted.

Comparing the revenue Ghana accrues from gold and cocoa vis-à-vis oil and gas, the President said: “In 2013 oil’s total contribution to our export revenue was $700 million, which is still nothing near what a sector like cocoa can bring of almost more than 3 billion dollars so we still are growing the oil sector.”