Ghana’s quest of achieving a “Ghana Beyond Aid” will be impossible if the government fails to build a strong industrial sector, a Senior Research Fellow at IMANI Ghana, Theophilus Acheampong has said.

According to him, a decent gas price is required to translate into electricity tariffs that consumers can pay.

Currently, the average cost of gas delivered is 6.55 mmbtu while the average sales price is 8.55 mmbtu. This, some energy sector players have said needs to be reduced drastically.

Speaking in an interview with Class Business News’ Pious Kojo Backah on the sidelines of a report launch and workshop on gas price formation, Mr Acheampong said the government would have to take a second look at the price make-up, especially on the cost of transporting natural gas.

He said: “You cannot do ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ without having a good industrial sector, without having the goods that we need and fundamentally you need a decent gas price that will feed into electricity tariffs. So, both ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ and a good gas price actually go hand-in-hand.

“The question has been that the price currently as has been constituted is still not one that will actually drive broad-based industrial growth and development, which is why we are saying that a second look at the pricing make-up needs to happen, particularly around the bit of transportation, the gathering and the processing cost.

“We cannot understand why you bring gas from Nigeria to Ghana which is 700 km away and you still want to charge the same transportation cost for gas which is only 60 km away offshore. That, we think, should be looked at.”