Fortress AIM Ghana, a fully-indigenous Ghanaian service provider in the oil and gas sector, has inaugurated its operational office for the Western Region at Takoradi.
The company offers a specialised and complementary portfolio of international standard product and service solutions, including Asset Integrity Management.
Kwaku Sekyiamah, Group Chief Executive Officer of Fortress AIM Ghana, said the company is committed to developing the skills of Ghanaians to be able to deliver international standards locally.
“With the wealth of expertise at its disposal, operations and facility will ensure skills transfer; and this will help drive the country’s local content,” he said, noting that Ghanaian technical services firms face a number of challenges which limit their true potential in the industry.
One of the challenges he mentioned is lack of technical skills, which requires the establishment of an effective industry and technical skills enhancement programme for local companies.
“With the respective laws in place, the focus on technical training for locals should be in collaboration with expatriate companies which must progressively train our people; foreign partners must provide technology transfer to local partners as a requirement.”
He said with demand in the industry and the country’s quest to grow local content, there is a need for financial sector support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Also, he said, there is a need for industry players to ensure that operators provide some form of pre-financing options for credible local oil and gas companies – especially SMEs in the technical space.
Nana Kobina Nketsia V, Omanhene of Essikado Traditional Area, underscored the need for a conscious effort on the part of the country’s oil resources managers to help indigenous Ghanaian companies grow.
He said the upstream oil and gas industry requires a lot of collaboration and local participation, which will help give meaning to the country’s stated aim of maximising local content and local participation.
This, he said, is to ensure that the country sets the right stage for correcting past mistakes on how other resources were poorly managed. “Supporting Ghanaian companies to upscale and transition into the upstream oil and gas industry is a must.”
