The prices of petroleum products are expected to fall between 2% and 4% for petrol, diesel, and Liquefied Petroleum Gas, beginning tomorrow August 1, 2024.  

This follows the slowdown in the depreciation of the Ghana cedi during the second half of July 2024 and the favourable international market dynamics.

According to the Institute for Energy Security (IES), the price of petrol and deisel fell by 2.99% and 4.59% respectively and LPG by 1.10% in the second half of July 2024.

“Precisely, the price of gasoline [petrol] fell by 2.99%, gasoil [diesel] by 4.59%, and LPG by 1.10% in the second half of July 2024.  The Ghana cedi also recorded slowed depreciation (0.52%), the lowest since February 2024.

“Following the positive realised on the foreign fuel market coupled with the slowed depreciation of Ghana Cedi recorded on the domestic forex market, the Institute for Energy Security (IES) projects a fall in fuel prices in the coming days”.

World Oil Market

The second pricing window for July 2024 for the first time since the post-OPEC+ meeting saw Brent crude futures dropping below $80 per barrel.

This was driven lower by disappointing global demand as Chinese imports in July 2024 hit the lowest level in two years.

Brent Crude traded at $78.70 per barrel compared to $83.03 per barrel at the start of the pricing window.

Local Fuel Market Performance

The second pricing window for July 2024 saw the price of liquid fuels jump at the pumps on the local fuels market.

Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) increased the price per litre of petrol by GH¢0.30 and Gasoil by GH¢.20 respectively. 

The IES computation of the national average price for the three refined petroleum products for the first pricing window for July 2024 showed petrol and diesel selling at GH¢14.23 and GH¢14.70 per litre respectively, whereas (LPG) went for GH¢15.22 per kilogramme.

The Graduate Unemployed Nurse and Midwives Association has welcomed the latest decision by the government to recruit over 15,000 new health professionals.

In a statement released on Friday, July 26, 2024, the Ministry of Health (MoH) announced the recruitment of 15, 200 nurses and midwives, effective Monday, August 5, 2024.

The MoH confirmed that the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has granted the necessary financial clearance for the recruitment process.

Interested and qualified candidates are expected to apply through the MoH’s online application portal, where they can select their preferred agency under the Ministry. The application period will close on Friday, August 23, 2024.

This comes on the back of numerous protests and demonstrations by several health professionals over the government’s inability to clear the backlog of 2020, 2021 and 2022.

National President of The Graduate Unemployed Nurse and Midwives Association Ibrahim Haruna has been reacting to the latest development.

“We’re very grateful in the first place to the Ministry of Health. It’s not bad news, but it’s not completely what we’re expecting.

“That is what we have got for now, so we will take it… Last week Friday, we received a call from the Ministry that they have got clearance for us around 15,000, so we were expecting an official communication and it came in from the ministry, so it’s welcome news,” the National President of the Graduate Unemployed Nurse and Midwives Association said.

Herbert Krapa, Minister of State at the Ministry of Energy, says the government is committed to taking concrete steps towards reducing emissions and meeting its international obligations under the Paris Agreement. 

 As part of efforts towards that goal, he said interventions in key sectors including energy, agriculture and transport are being implemented to contribute to achieving the goal.

 Mr Krapa who was speaking at the opening of a Water-Energy-Food (WEFP) Nexus Program Knowledge sharing Seminar in Accra said the government was working with local and international stakeholders to for instance achieve the 10 per cent renewable energy target. 

The  WEFP  is a project that seeks to develop 100 hectares of mechanised and irrigated farmland to produce more than 1,200 tons of quality rice seeds annually.

It will provide clean sustainable energy to power the irrigation systems at Dawhenya and guarantee the farmers reliable access to water throughout the year.

The project will be implemented over the next five years by the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in partnership with the Korea Programme for International Cooperation in Agriculture (KOPIA) Ghana Centre.

Mr Krapa stated that WEFP was a significant effort to improve Ghana’s productive uses of the energy landscape, increase agricultural output, ensure sustainable water management, and accelerate the Government’s flagship program “Planting for Food and Jobs.”  

He noted that the project sets the stage for a bigger vision for the future explaining that by investing in renewable energy infrastructure, it could stimulate innovation, and growth in the real sectors of our economy, create decent and sustainable jobs, and build resilience to climate change in vulnerable communities.

The Minister noted that the government had lifted the moratorium on distributed renewable energy and launched the net-metered renewable energy program. 

 “Consequently, we have rolled out the Government Goes Solar with €22 million funding by KfW, the 12,000 net-metered solar PV project as part of the US$85. million Scaling-up Renewable Energy Program in bid to promote productive uses of energy and increase the country’s renewable energy stock,” he said.

Dr Choong-Hoe Kim, the Director of KOPIA Ghana Center said high-yield rice varieties and agricultural mechanization were crucial steps in boosting rice production and achieving greater self-sufficiency in Ghana. 

Energy generation, he said, was essential for supporting those activities, explaining that project partners had worked together in the last two years in preparation for the implementation of the WEFP project.

The project, he said had a goal of producing more than 5,000 tons of quality rice seeds, which would then be distributed to over one-third of total acreages of rice land across the country.

“This would help address the rice seeds shortage problem in Ghana, where less than half of its needs are currently met and increase rice productivity from 3 tons per hectare to over four tons per hectare,” he said. 

 Dr Kim said the Government of the Republic of Korea placed a high priority on advancing the agricultural and energy sectors in Ghana 

 He assured that the Korean Government would continue to cooperate with the Ghanaian Government to help Ghana achieve its goal of self-sufficiency in rice production as well as in energy generation.