Govt generated GH¢1.99bn from upstream oil and gas – Ken Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister, Mr Ken Ofori Atta has revealed that Ghana accrued GH¢1.99billion from upstream oil and gas.

He told Parliament on Thursday July 23 during the presentation the mid-year budget review that: “Revenue form upstream oil and gas amounted GH¢1.99billion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”

He further revealed to the legislature that a lot of investments have been made to ensure the lights are kept on for both domestic and commercial purposes.

He told the house that the current government also paid of the costs that were incurred following what he descried as ‘questionable contractual power agreements’ signed by the previous NDC administration.

He said : “We have enjoyed three and half years of reliable and cheaper power. We have spent in excess of 4.7million on capacity payment to ensure that we keep the lights on and also to pay for power we do not use under various questionable contractual obligations we inherited.”

Mr Ofori-Atta further told Parliament that the current government has successfully digitized the economy, making it easier for businesses to be located within the country.

This he said, has also ensured modernity in the ways of conducting businesses in the oil-producing West African nation.

“To modernize the economy in this global competitiveness, we embarked on transformative agenda, digitizing the economy, we implemented the digital addressing system and the national ID programme to ensure each Ghanaian and business locations will be duly identified . All these have made to formalize the economy,” he said.