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Focus on equipping Guyanese to participate, benefit from oil resources-AfriExim Bank President tells govt.
—says Guyana’s 12B barrels of oil reserves will mostly be enjoyed by foreign companies
Kaieteur News- President of the Africa Exim Bank Benedict Okechukwu Oramah told the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo that Guyana’s estimated 12B barrels of oil reserves that is worth approximately US$850B, at the current market price will mostly be enjoyed by foreign companies if the country does not put systems in place to avoid this.
President of the Africa Exim Bank Benedict Okechukwu Oramah
Addressing the Guyana Energy Conference and Supply Chain Expo, Oramah said that going forward annually it is estimated revenues from the “oil service sector would amount to US$5 to US$8 billion annually in the years ahead…I dare say that most of it you will pay to oil service companies abroad, if Guyana does nothing to avoid that.”
He highlighted that having a population of less than a million people, with that amount of estimated wealth is something Guyana should be proud of. However, numbers are hardly accounted for in the national accounts or the gross domestic product.
Oramah questioned the logic behind deferring natural resources to back up economic development but keeping the population in poverty under the pretense of saving such resources for the future saying that, “The notion held by a certain group of policymakers and development practitioners, in perspective I think it is promoted to keep resource-rich developing countries virtually poor.”
He said his advice to such countries is that they “must drill baby drill” and if it is the case where they cannot do so, then they should strive to sell the oil reserves, and utilise the proceeds to swiftly build out infrastructure, train their citizen and dynamise their economies. “I’m very proud that Guyana is doing just that,” he said.
The AfriExim Bank President cautioned that “we must say no to serving as an unpaid warehouse for rich economies, and keeping the oil under the ground, while our people are poor, and then people take them when they leave.”
Further he advised that the money in pocket, if a government does not know what to do with it immediately, it is best to put it into the Federal Reserve. “For Guyana this proven crude reserves must become reliable sources capital needed to pursue economic transformation that’s the only purpose such resources can serve for us,” he said.
He appealed to the Government of Guyana to ensure that the natural resources it has serve as doors to transform the socio-economic fortunes of its citizens, as there should be a focus placed on equipping Guyanese with the capacity to effectively participate and benefit from the country’s economy.
(Focus on equipping Guyanese to participate, benefit from oil resources-AfriExim Bank President tells govt.)
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