Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, former Minister for Inner-City and Zongo Development, has been appointed by President Akufo-Addo to be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).
Information available to The Chronicle indicates that his appointment was communicated to him in a letter dated June 17, 2021, and he is expected to take office on Thursday, July 1, 2021.
The news of his appointment, which has since been widely hailed, appears to be the first in the limelight officially, as the institution, NPA, has even issued a statement to announce it.
Dr Hamid, 50, has been the Spokesperson of the President from 2008, prior to his winning the presidency in 2017.
In the first-term of this government, Dr Hamid served as the Minister for Information, and subsequently as the Minister for Inner-City and Zongo Development.
He also served as the deputy National Campaign Manager for President Akufo-Addo’s second-term bid in 2020, and was in charge of campaign communications.
He takes over from Hassan Tampuli, the immediate past NPA boss, now the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gushegu, who has since been nominated to serve as a Deputy Minister of Transport.
He was the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, a think tank affiliated to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), and a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast.
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid entered Tamale Secondary School in 1987 to sit for his Advanced Level examinations. In 1991, he entered the University of Cape Coast to pursue a Bachelor of Arts Degree, eventually majoring in Religious Studies. He subsequently obtained an MPhil and a PhD in Religious Studies from the same university.
About NPA
The NPA was established by an act of Parliament, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) Act 2005 (Act 691), to regulate the downstream petroleum industry in Ghana.
As a regulator, the NPA ensures that the industry remains efficient, profitable, and fairness, and, at the same time, consumers get value for money.
The downstream petroleum industry in Ghana encompasses all activities involved in the importation and refining of crude oil, as well as the sale, marketing, and distribution of refined petroleum products in the country.
Commercial activities of the industry include importation, exportation, re-exportation, shipment, transportation, processing, refining, storage, distribution, marketing and sale of petroleum products. The petroleum industry is one of the key sub-sectors and a major contributor to Ghana’s gross domestic product.
Since the establishment of the National Petroleum Authority in 2005, it has supervised the acceleration of the petroleum downstream deregulation process, by facilitating the removal of restrictions on the establishment and operations of facilities, as well as on importation of crude oil and petroleum products.
In June 2015, the NPA successfully implemented the final phase of the deregulation process – price liberalisation. This involved the full removal of control over pricing of petroleum products by the government.
Private importers, distributors and retailers are empowered to set ex-refinery and ex-pump prices with no intervention by the government. The Ghana downstream petroleum industry boasts over one million metric tonnes worth of state-of-the-art storage infrastructure.
Given the country’s position on the coast of West Africa, as well as the country’s democratic credentials, security and stability, Ghana’s downstream industry is well placed to store strategic stocks of petroleum products efficiently as well as serve as a reliable point for exportation to neighbouring, land-locked countries.
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