How Nii Lante Bannerman is changing the face of Premix Secretariat

Frankly, from afar, I have observed this gentleman - Nii Lante Bannerman, since his appointment as the Chairman of the National Premix Committee in February 2017. I must commend him for the seriousness and resurgence he has brought to the Premix secretariat which was almost collapsing under the erstwhile leadership.

From all indications and looking at the various efforts and policies that have been implemented so far, fisher folks are better off under the administration of Nii Lante Bannerman.

The objectives set out when the National Premix Committee was constituted by the government of Ghana in July 2009 is to oversee the administration and distribution of premix fuel, a hugely subsidized petroleum product in the country.

The National Premix Committee's responsibility is to supervise the efficient and effective administration and distribution of premix fuel. Since premix fuel is highly subsidized by the government, the National Premix Committee makes sure that monitoring is enforced to avoid diversion or inappropriate distribution. The National Premix Committee is tasked to ensure that the proceeds from the sale of premix fuel are being used to develop the fishing communities in the country.

Sadly successive leadership of the Premix secretariat supervised graft and hoarding of the product, a situation that almost defeated the purpose of the establishment of the Premix secretariat.

Before Nii Lante Bannerman took office in February 2017, the Prenix Secretariat has always been in the news for all the wrong reasons particularly with regards to premix fuel and its distribution. Issues surrounding the distribution of premix and its availability are life and death issues for the fisher folks and the serenity that has returned to fishing communities through the good policies of Nii Lante Bannerman is worth mentioning.

The administration of the premix secretariat under the chairmanship of Nii Lante Bannerman has been relentless in its efforts at sanitizing the premix distribution system and instituting pragmatic measures to ensure challenges that hitherto affected and caused many problems with its distribution are reduced to the barest minimum.

Over the years, some unscrupulous people in the industry created artificial shortages by hoarding the commodity, they then go back and sell the same product to the fishermen at exorbitant prices to profiteer at their expense. This unfortunate situation is no longer the case as new measures by the current administration has come to the fore.

There also an introduction of Prototype digitized cards for every Fisherfolks in Ghana by the current administration. Even as at now, the program has been rolled out in Nungua, a fishing suburb in Accra.

All bottlenecks in the distribution of premix fuel have been tackled head on.

The supply of Premix has been timely since Nii Lante Bannerman took over the operations of the secretariat, the issue of hoarding is in the past now.

There is closer collaboration between the secretariat and the landing beach committees in the fishing communities to ensure premix gets to the intended beneficiaries.

Landing beach committees has been established at the various landing beaches to empower the fishermen to operate premix fuel stations at the landing beaches. Each landing beach committee was required to choose an Oil Marketing Company to supply them with premix fuel. Proceeds from the sale of premix fuel at the landing beaches are to be used in developing the fishing communities in the country.

Definitely, the appointment of this young chap is very right and needs to be supported by all Ghanaians.

Danny Ampony

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