GFZB ACQUIRES LAND BANK (PAGE 32)

THE Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB) has established a 3,200-acre land bank at sea-front areas in the Shama District in the Western Region for the emerging onshore oil industry.
The Chief Executive of the GFZB, Mr Edward Dwomoh Appiah, said the location of the land bank offered opportunities to investors in three focal areas of investment support in downstream refinery, distribution and transit.
In specific terms, he said the GFZB had positioned its land bank in Shama as the dedicated industrial park for the petroleum sector and to offer land for tank farms, storage yards for logistics, haulage contractors, manufacturers of chemical inputs and accessories for petroleum exploration, land for the siting of refineries, among others.
Mr Appiah, who announced this at the Oil and Gas Conference in Takoradi, said the location was also perfect for supply- chain business services, as well as dominant operators in exploration, chemical production, manufacturing of by-products, including plastics and jellies for export.
That aside, he said it offered the opportunity for job creation and investment support in skills development and capacity building, services for employers and employees in the petroleum sector.
He said the act which established the free zones programme was for the promotion of economic development and provide for the regulation of activities in free zones and related purposes.
He told the participants of the conference that GFZB had, over the past 12 years, achieved considerable success.
“It has been able to attract about $2.869 billion capital investments, generated over 27,000 jobs, exported about $5.54 billion in terms of value of goods and services and licensed 205 companies,” he said.
He reminded investors that Ghana’s free zones programme did not cover the regular upstream exploration and production activities of the petroleum and mining sectors.
In an example he said, “Onne Oil and Gas Free Zone in Nigeria is famous as the world’s only dedicated free zone for oil and gas. That bold initiative by Nigeria has been a major success story, supporting the local community by its creation of jobs and infrastructure development,” he said.
He said Onne had also attracted major players in the industry, becoming the fastest growing oil and gas free in the world. The GFZB had, therefore, chosen to be very specific and focused in its approach into that new field.