President John Dramani Mahama has announced that Ghana is on the verge of refining its own crude oil locally, describing the move as a major step towards industrialisation and value addition.
Speaking at a Diaspora Town Hall Meeting in London, Mahama said a shipment of crude oil from Ghana’s offshore fields would soon be delivered to the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) for processing, ending the long-standing practice of exporting crude and importing refined petroleum products.
“We are just about to make history again,” the President said. “We are about to start to refine our own crude.”
“In June, we’re delivering a parcel of Ghanaian crude from our own oil fields to Tema Oil Refinery to process. And that is what we call value addition.”
Mahama argued that Ghana has for decades exported raw materials while allowing jobs and industrial benefits to accrue elsewhere.
“We process ores like manganese, bauxite, gold and everything, and then we ship them out to be processed by somebody. In that processing, we are creating jobs in that other person’s economy,” he said.
The President outlined a broader industrial strategy focused on processing natural resources locally, including cocoa, minerals and petroleum.
He revealed that government intends to allow the Ghana Cocoa Board to raise funds independently through the domestic capital market, reducing reliance on annual syndicated loans.
According to him, the move will free Ghana from having to collateralise future cocoa harvests in exchange for financing.
“This year the Minister of Finance is going to allow Cocoa Board to float a bond by itself to raise the money that it needs to buy our cocoa,” he said.
Mahama added that government plans to ensure that at least half of Ghana’s cocoa beans are processed domestically.
“Fifty per cent of those beans must be processed locally in Ghana,” he stressed.
The President said cocoa products produced in Ghana would benefit significantly from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), as most of their content is locally sourced.
“Ghana should be able to supply virtually the whole of Africa with cocoa products,” he noted.
Mahama also disclosed that international energy companies had committed billions of dollars in fresh investments into Ghana’s oil and gas sector, including new drilling projects aimed at increasing crude oil and gas production.
He maintained that value addition and industrial processing remain central to government’s economic transformation agenda.
“We need to pursue value addition not only in the mining sector and the oil and gas sector, but also in agriculture and other manufacturing sectors,” the President said.
