Kwaku Agyeman Duah CEO, Association of Oil Marketing Companies
Local Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have split from the umbrella body, Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs), to form a new association.
The move has been necessitated by the failure of AOMCs to protect Ghanaian OMCs from unfair treatments in the downstream industry.
According to information available to the Daily Statesman, the local OMCs claim that even though they outnumber their foreign counterpart, they did not have a say in the running of their previous mother association.
To this end, they have separated from the group to form an independent body, under the name Association of Indigenous Oil Marketing Companies (AIOMCs).
Favouritism
According to a document sighted by the paper, AIOMCs postulates that foreign OMCs are favoured in all the sectors of the industry while indigenous ones suffer.
It cites, for instance, that even though both local and foreign OMCs purchase their petroleum products from the various Bulk Oil Distributors (BDCs) on credit, there are different payment regimes for the local OMCs and their foreign counterparts.
Speedy development
The promoters of the Association of Indigenous Oil Marketing Companies (AIOMCs), comprising over 100 indigenous OMCs, are confident that they will speed up the development of the downstream industry.
They say foreign OMCs are only concentrated in the urban centres because they are interested in making money from the urban dwellers while indigenous OMCs have fuel filling stations in both urban areas and most rural communities dotted across the country.
On investment, AIOMCs believes the coming together of local oil marketing companies can attract funds, both locally and internationally, to grow their businesses to rival the foreign giants.
Employment opportunities
The indigenous OMCs, which currently provide over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs to the teeming unemployed youth, are expected to create more jobs if the government pays proper attention to the issues facing their growth.
Checks indicate that all the local oil marketing companies are solidly behind the new AIOMCs.
Indeed, the downstream activities include the marketing and distribution of petroleum products by the OMCs and the pre-mixing of petroleum products for other industrial uses are catalysts for the socio-economic development of the country.
