The Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah has tasked the Petroleum Hub Development Cooperation ( PHDC) Board to fashion out a policy to give more jobs to people around the petroleum hub enclave in line with the local content policy.
He, therefore, advised the PHDC Board to establish an agency to train indigenes in the Western Region before recruitment of the workforce into the hub project commences.
According to the Regional Minister, the practice whereby people around the catchment area of such a project do not benefit has been a sort of worry to the people.
He was speaking at a stakeholder engagement forum, on the Petroleum Hub Development project, in the Jomoro Municipality.
Mr Darko Mensah assured the board that the Western Regional Coordinating Council would partner with the Board to acquire the land for the project through amicable settlement and adequate compensations to land owners and farmers.
The Minister reiterated that the project is expected to create more than Seven Hundred and Eighty Thousand (780,000) jobs for youth in the region and would also help develop communities around the hub enclave.
Mr Darko Mensah observed that the Petroleum Hub project would provide more direct and indirect jobs than the normal oil and gas project.
The Board Chairman for the PHDC Awulae Annor Agyei called for adequate compensation for arable and cash crops which are to be destroyed on the land earmarked for the project.
He said, apart from the compensation, additional monies would be set aside to cater for farmers and land owners.
Awuley Annor Adjei urged Ghanaians to invest in the project but not look up to foreigners alone..
He said by 2030, the Petroleum Hub Project should be ready.
