About 15 Ghanaian-owned Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have joined the newly incorporated Association of Indigenous Oil Marketing Companies of Ghana (AIOMCG).
The new group broke away from the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs).
According to the coordinators, they have reached out to over 30 indigenous OMCs, and more than 15 of them have duly registered as members of the association.
The new group has been registered with the Registrar General, notified the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), as well as sent a formal introduction to the Energy Ministry.
The director of technical duties, Elias Slim Bansi, expressed the hope that the association would soon exceed its membership target.
He announced plans to bail out struggling members, saying they have held an extensive dialogue with some key banks in the country to provide a financial bailout for its members.
“We are poised to protect our members from unfair treatments in the downstream industry. We are also going to champion their interests to enable us to beat off the stiff competition from the foreign OMCs,” he said.
Mr Patrick Ekar, the director of administration, said, “We believe that the association will make a huge difference. This is because, in the industry, many of the OMCs feel sidelined and bullied in issues that concern them”.
He pledged a commitment to tackle individual challenges faced by various indigenous OMCs.
He identified some of the challenges as poor policymaking, lack of proper structures regarding the business operations for OMCs, applying sanctions which most often than not are done without due diligence, thus disrupting the workflow at stations.
“We will put in place strong structures and policies as stakeholders so that we can play a key part during price increment consultation process as the ripple effects impact AIOMC as we do provide employment for tanker owners, drivers, mechanics, tank fabricators, accountants, pay tax, administrators, insurance companies, station attendants, securities, etc,” he said.
The executives of the association also pledged to solidify the bond between AIOMCs and NPA, Energy Ministry as a stakeholder and key player in the downstream industry.
In May this year, the AIOMCG broke away from AOMCs due to what it describes as the failure of the AOMCs to protect the indigenous Ghanaian OMCs from unfair treatments in the downstream industry.
Therefore, the new group was formed to champion the interests of indigenous OMCs while collaborating with the regulator, local and international organisations, and other stakeholders to expand the frontiers of the industry and beyond.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
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