The Chief Executive of the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs) has criticised government’s approach to fixing Ghana’s energy crisis.
Dr. Riverson Oppong insists the downstream petroleum sector has carried more than its fair share of the burden and must now see real results.
His comments follow Parliament’s approval on June 3 of the Energy Sector Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which introduces an additional GH¢1 levy on every litre of petroleum product sold.
The government says the new levy is essential to tackle ballooning energy sector debts and guarantee a stable electricity supply. But Dr. Oppong is not convinced.
“We’ve supported the electricity business for quite a long time,” he told Evans Mensah on Joy News’ PM Express on June 4.
“When ESLA [Energy Sector Levies Act] was enacted, the downstream sector stood in line. We paid. In fact, last year alone, from our table-top calculation, ESLA raised no less than GH¢9 billion. So the question is, where did the money go?”
For Dr. Oppong, piling a new GH¢1 levy onto an already burdened pricing structure won’t fix what he called the “foundation” problems of the energy sector.
“It’s not about increasing ESLA or adding another GH¢1 to it,” he said. “If you’re building a storey building on a very soft foundation, it will collapse.”
He acknowledged the pain many ordinary Ghanaians feel when the power goes off, especially in the dead of night, but questioned whether government had exhausted all its options.
“If you are an ordinary Ghanaian and you have your power off in the middle of the night when the weather is hot, it’s very painful,” he said.
“And even for the government—when there is ‘dumsor’, I don’t think it’s a sweet thing to have in the middle of the night.”
Dr. Oppong noted that the Energy Sector Recovery Programme (ESRP) was designed to resolve exactly this kind of crisis.
“So you have to look at it—what is this new levy addressing? And what other options were on the table to avoid what we might face in the near future?” he asked.
The AOMCs CEO made it clear that his concerns weren’t just about costs, but transparency.
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