A former Director and Group CEO of GOIL, Mr. Patrick A.K. Akorli has pleaded that government continues to support GOIL to hold on to its key role as a regulator of prices within the oil marketing business.

According to him, if GOIL’s role as the regulator of prices within the oil marketing business is maintained, there would be stability in the country with regards to customers’ ease of doing business.

“If things are not done by the GOIL system that means we will return to the old days of doing things which would imply that the other companies play on the market. With GOIL in there, things are done in a very transparent way and anytime we see prices going up, you see that civil society even agrees and same applies for when fuel prices come down. Take GOIL out and you would begin to see things,” he disclosed.

Speaking on Eye on Port live on national television on Assessing Ghana’s Potential to Be the Oil and Gas Hub, the life-long servant to GOIL, revealed that prior to the deregulation system, not only was there instability in the oil marketing business, but Government lost a lot of revenue.

“We had been getting it wrong since the days GNPC would import refined products for TOR. There were Government subsidies applied which incurred losses. As we speak now, we are all paying TOR Debts. In 2007 the BDC concept was introduced, and by 2014, the BDC also run into debt because of foreign exchange losses and a lot of overheads in the industry which I found unnecessary,” he said.

He said although faced with a lot of resistance, he pitched the idea of GOIL having a Bulk Distribution Company that would buy directly from the Oil Trading Companies and then have the advantage of being in the position to regulate the prices and since then it has been a successful initiative.

“When in 2015, IMF said government should exempt itself from the regulation of the prices, I made a case to my board that GOIL needed a BDC and we did get a BDC which enabled us buy from the OTC’s directly. Till today, it has been working. GOIL is the one leading it.”

Mr. Akorli added that this model practiced by Ghana is admired by other African countries who want to emulate it.

“In fact people from East Africa come to me and ask how we are doing it. They complain saying, these people have taken over our economy!”