Sunyani, April 25, GNA - Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Brong Ahafo Regional Minister has called on Ghanaians to support the Government in its quest to find ways of effectively and efficiently managing and using revenue that would accrue from the oil discovered when full production begins.

He was addressing participants attending the Brong Ahafo Regional Consultative Forum on Oil and Gas Development in Ghana at Sunyani. It is a follow-up to the two-day national forum held at GIMPA in Accra in February this year.

The participants included Municipal and District and Chief Executives, oil and gas development technical experts, representatives of security agencies, heads of department, traditional authorities and the media.

They discussed oil and gas issues to chart the way forward, the draft oil and gas policy document in order to incorporate views from a cross section of the Ghanaian society to ensure transparency, sustainable and effective management of the sector and safeguard security and the environment.

Mr Baffour-Awuah called on the participants to focus on the training of Ghanaians to manage the oil resource to the benefit of the people, using part of the oil revenue to revamp other sectors of the economy such as agriculture to enhance accelerated industrialization and attainment of the nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Mr Baffour-Awuah asked them to deliberate on the establishment of an oil reserve fund for future generations and a sustainable environmental management "since oil is not a renewable resource".

"I urge participants to focus on the development of alternative income generation and employment opportunities for the people to be affected by the exploitation of the resource as well as the empowerment of security agencies to protect the resource," he added.

He noted that Ghana's oil discovery "is a significant blessing that God has showered on our nation at 50 years of nationhood. The best legacy we can leave for future generations is to ensure best practices in the exploitation and management of this important resource".

"Indeed oil discovery could be a blessing because of the positive dividends that come with the exploitation of the resource and a curse because of the negatives or bitter experiences of some oil producing nations in the management of the industry," Mr Baffour Awuah asserted. However, he noted that the most important issue was to ensure that the positive aspects outweighed the negatives.

"I am confident that we can, taking cognizance of the positive and negative experiences of other oil producing countries, produce a policy that would help Ghana harness our oil with minimal bitter or negative experiences," Mr Baffour-Awuah added.