On page 12 of our yesterday’s issue is a story which says as part of the move to indigenise its operations, the Ghana Gas Company Limited has replaced Chinese expatriates running its Atuabo plant with local engineers,
The company explains that the move saves it some $3 million in operation cost every month, adding that the amount constituted the remuneration of the expatriates for a month.
It adds further that it took three years for it to relieve the Chinese of their roles in the company’s operations and that today, it has a world class workforce full of local engineers and technicians capable of sustaining the petrochemical industry to play a pivotal role in accelerating the development of the country’s economy.
We know there are still expatriates in certain industries in the country because of their much-needed expertise in various sectors of the economy.
However, the Ghana Gas move should motivate other public companies employing the services of expatriates to begin training Ghanaian professionals to take over from expatriates, where possible, and save them some percentage of their operational cost.
This is imperative because the benefits are enormous. For example, the move creates the opportunity for Ghanaians to be in charge of their own affairs.
It also becomes a chance to give jobs available to indigenes, which in itself comes as a reward for those taking over and gives hope to their subordinates that their diligence shall be rewarded one day.
Relatedly, the savings can help to sustain and expand the companies to take on more Ghanaians, thereby helping to reduce unemployment in the country.
We, therefore, hope that Ghana Gas would put the savings to good use for the whole world to bear witness of its prudent initiative.
At a time the whole country is going to the IMF for $3 billion and some state enterprises have liquidity problems, it is worthy of note that $3 million saved every month by just one state company is huge.
If it is really the case that the country has at least 180 public enterprises, including joint-venture companies, and even just 50 of them can save $1 million a month from their operations. It would take 20 months to make a billion dollars to reduce the country’s financial stress.
One other important lesson to be learnt is that state organisations should see it as a duty to train their staff to world-class standard.
With globalisation being the order of the day, such training would never be in vain as some of the trained professionals can have the opportunity to work outside the country in their chosen areas.
We pray that Ghana Gas can achieve the level of transformation it envisions to establish itself as a reliable supplier of lean gas to serve Ghanaian industries for them in turn to be able to constantly contribute their quota to national development.
The Ghana Gas move is a typical example of the national good and deserves emulation by state enterprises.
Therefore, state organisations employing expatriates should evaluate their operations and, if it turns out that the services of such expatriates are not that critical, then they should be replaced immediately
