Edudzi Tameklo hints at amending 20-year-old NPA Act to meet market demands

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Godwin Edudzi Tameklo, has revealed an ongoing process to overhaul the NPA Act, Act 691, to enhance regulation of the petroleum downstream sector.

He says a new bill to amend the existing legal framework will soon be submitted to Parliament.

Speaking during a working visit by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to the Authority Wednesday, October 21, 2026, Mr. Tameklo said the current law has outlived its relevance.

"The National Petroleum Authority Act, Act 691 with LI 632 and 65, it governs the entire thing. I'm sure pretty soon something will be coming before Parliament," he said.

According to him, the law is 20 years old and the market has evolved beyond what the law can handle, warranting the need to make changes to meet the current market circumstances.

"The Authority Act 691 is 20 years old and oftentimes for a regulator, the market is always ahead of regulation. And so after 20 years there has been the need for an amendment, a complete overhaul," he explained.

The CEO indicated that the amendment will also seek to adjust the Unified Petroleum Price Fund (UPPF) to manage differences in petroleum transportation costs across the country.

Unlike other commodities, Tameklo argued that petroleum pricing cannot be left to vary from community to community.

"We know like commodities like cement, the price of cement differs from community to community. But we realise that petroleum is so essential that if you run petroleum like you run cement pricing, you create distortions in the system and in the country as well," he said.

The NPA boss who is also a legal practitioner, further averred that uniform pricing is critical to prevent economic hardship, especially for northern Ghana where the poverty level is high.

"The more northern you go, the greater the poverty. So if you are going to have a situation where those in the north are going to pay higher for no fault of theirs, it will create a problem," he noted.