A Petrochemical Engineer, Dr. Yussif Sulemana, has asked the government to work to ensure that the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) becomes fully operational in order to refine the crude locally.

He noted that the huge amount of money Ghana uses in importing finished crude products into the country will reduce if the oil is refined locally.

He added that this will also shore up the strength of the local currency, the cedi.

Speaking in an interview with TV3, Dr Sulemana said “It is in the best interest of the nation to get the refinery into business.

“When that is done it is going to create a lot of jobs. TOR barely can take service and that is so unfortunate. We need to get our downstream infrastructure such as TOR and BOST to be in business.”

He added “Look at the quantum of hard currency we use to import finished products. If we could work out a model and ensure that if not all but part of this currency is circulated internally it will help boost the currency weakness.

“Day in day out, we struggle with our currency we have to inject liquidity periodically just to arrest the cedi, that is not a sustainable means, the sustainable way is to add value to develop our manufacturing base.”