African journalists empowered to exert oversight on extractive industry

Efficient management of revenues generated from the extractive industry – oil, gas and mining – could help improve health care and education of the poor as well as serve as catalyst for economic growth.

This is achievable in emerging African economies if journalists are able to play an effective advocacy and oversight role over the sector.

To achieve this goal, a training program targeting journalists drawn from Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda has opened in Kampala, Uganda to expose participants to the critical issues surrounding the exploitation, management and utilization of oil, gas and mineral resources in their respective countries.

The 5^th fellowship session is to introduce the participants to the fundamental issues concerning the exploitation, utilization, benefits, and challenges of oil, gas, and mineral resources, enriched with a global perspective.

It is organized by Revenue Watch Institute (RWI), in conjunction with Ghana’s PenPlusBytes and the Africa Centre for Media Excellence (ACME).

Media Program Officer with RWI, George Lugalambi, at the course opening enjoined journalists to vigilant on issues of transparency, effective management and accountability in the extractives.

The ten-day training is under the theme: “Strengthening Media Oversight of the Extractive Sectors: Reporting on Oil, Gas and Mining”. It is designed to help journalists develop the knowledge and skills to stimulate and feed public debate on how best to ensure that the proceeds from natural resources are used to serve the interests of a country and its citizens.

“The extractive sector revenues are important for wealth creation and poverty reduction in Africa. However, this promise can only be realized if all stakeholders especially the media are given the capacity to play an oversight role and we are delighted that this week in Kampala, we are going to support the knowledge and skills set of 30 journalists to enable them play this crucial role effectively,” stated Kwami Ahiabenu II, President of Penplusbytes.

 

The training programme begun in 2011 with the aim of increasing the quantity and quality of oil and gas stories. It has so far built the capacity of about 70 journalists to enable them play the critical role of helping inform and engage citizens, CSOs and parliament to effectively hold government and companies in the sector accountable

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Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh 

My exposure to Ghana’s emerging oil and gas industry

There is no doubt that petroleum exploration, production and marketing is the biggest thing happening in modern Ghana – expectations remain high among the citizenry as they anticipate revenue accruing from the new oil and gas sector will drive national economic development and increase in individual incomes.

The dynamics of petroleum revenue resource management and investments to benefit the Ghanaian are critical issues of concern. Against all odds, the media is expected to be proactive in its watchdog role to ensure the petroleum resource becomes a ‘blessing’ to the country.

Already, there are fears that “Ghana’s mass media of public communication has chicken out of playing their role in reporting oil and gas”, as posited by communications consultant, Dr. Doris Dartey, who set the tone for an intensive six month training course to effectively report on Ghana's burgeoning oil and gas sector revenues and resources

I am privileged to be among 10 Ghanaian journalists selected from across the country to be part of the training, which forms part of the "Empowering the Media to Play an Active Watchdog Role over Ghana's Oil and Gas Revenue and Resources" project being undertaken  the International Institute of ICT Journalism (Penplusbytes) with funding and technical support from STAR-Ghana.

The project, according to Penplusbytes, aims to improve coverage of oil and gas stories by the Ghanaian media leading to an increase in the quantity and quality (in terms of in-depth and investigative reporting) of oil and gas stories thus leading to the media playing an effective watchdog role over Ghana's Oil and Gas revenues and resources.

The first phase of training took off from June 24-30, 2013 at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) with a face-to-face intensive training workshop with resource persons drawn from the oil and gas industry.

 

Seasoned journalists also took us through practical learning modules with reporting and writing skills, as well as information about pertinent issues in the extractive industry to enable us undertake better and in-depth stories on the sector.

As part of the training, we were taken to the Western Region, the home of Ghana's oil and undertook field trips to the Ghana Gas Processing Plant in Atuabo where we were taken through the technicalities of gas production.

We also visited the Takoradi International Company (TICO) where they gained a firsthand experience of how fuel energy is converted into electricity and other socio economic activities generated from the plant.

Other interesting places the group visited were the newly established Enterprise Development Center and the Takoradi polytechnic facility, all aimed at building the capacity of citizens to provide local content to the sector.

We also met with the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union and interacted with community members in the region to understand their needs and the effects of the extractive sector on their daily life.

These are indeed times for vigilance to guard against the potential mismanagement of the oil and gas resource.

The first session of the oil and gas training has raised my consciousness to understand that I am more of a stakeholder in reporting issues in the sector than a passive observer.

Therefore as companies in the industry are strategic in their operations, so should I as a journalist in reporting issues in the oil and gas industry.