President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stressed the need for the country to take charge of its petroleum sector, with more Ghanaians directly involved in the process of developing the oil and gas resources.

Although Ghana is making steady progress in the local content in the petroleum sector, the development of Ghana’s oil and gas resources is largely in the hands of foreign players.

President Akufo-Addo beleives that the country will benefit significantly from the sector if Ghanaians gets involved and participate in developing the resources.

“The resources are here in our country and our responsibility is to make sure that we are the principal beneficiaries not just in terms of the exploitation but also in terms of the human resources that are responsible for developing it,” he said.

President Akufo-Addo made these remarks when beneficiaries of the Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity Building Programme called on him at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday.

The Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity Building Programme is an initiative of the government to ensure that Ghanaians are trained in the petroleum sector as part of measures to improve local content in the sector.

While congratulating beneficiaries of the programme, the President commended the sponsors, Baker Huges, for taking interest in building the capacity of Ghanaians in the petroleum sector.

President Akufo-Addo underscored the need to build the capacity of more Ghanaians in the extractive sector, especially the petroleum sector to ensure that the country benefits fully from its resources.

He said although the participants have acquired the requisite academic knowledge, that alone was not sufficient to their success.

According to him, it was imperative for the beneficiaries to learn on the job before the full dimension of what they had learnt would be relevant.

President Akufo-Addo advised the beneficiaries not to be dismayed by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on jobs in the country, adding that their skills would still be in high demand.

“You have to work hard and work with integrity, knowing that you have a lot of people who will be willing to see you succeed,” he said.

The Minister of Energy, John Peter Amewu, commended the President for his vision to improve local content in the sector.

“Mr President, this is just the beginning. We can assure you that your vision for the oil and gas sector will come to stay,” he said.