Deregulating OMCs has benefited Ghanaians – NPA

The National Petroleum Administration (NPA) has observed that the deregulation policies introduced the downstream sector encourage competition, which will benefit consumers in the long run.

NPA CEO Alhassan Tampuli said that the regulatory agency allows marketers and importers of petroleum products to sell directly to consumers setting their own prices, which allows more OMCs to enter the market.

NPA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the “Happy Morning Show”: “With the proliferation of oil and marketing companies (OMC), competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Competition will naturally force people to set prices within a certain range. Therefore, competition is indeed beneficial to consumers. Nowadays, the price of petroleum products is determined about three forces: prices in the international market, foreign exchange, and taxation and margin. The margin includes OMC margin and dealer margin.

Now, OMC competes with each other on price in order to be able to increase the quantity. Therefore, they will lower prices reducing profits so that they can pay for operating expenses, get a good return on investment and be able to attract consumers. ”

In 2015, the Ghanaian Parliament passed the 2015 National Petroleum Administration (Amendment) Bill and became law. The law is to ensure complete cost recovery and unity of petroleum product pricing will be determined the market and competition.

According to the previous law, the National Petroleum Administration has the right to price petroleum products in the country.