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The Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), Duncan Amoah, has lauded the role of Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Ltd (SML) in revenue assurance, particularly in the downstream petroleum sector.
Speaking at the company’s fifth anniversary celebration in Tema yesterday, he praised the company for deploying real-time monitoring systems, which he said had significantly improved the accuracy of revenue tracking and reduced discrepancies.
Mr Amoah said SML's expertise was not in doubt, stressing that apart from being instrumental in minimising revenue leakages, the firm had also helped to improve the overall transparency in the petroleum sector.
The COPEC boss admitted that his previous criticism of SML was based on half-truths and that having been apprised of the operations of SML, he had come to understand that the company was indeed enhancing revenue mobilised by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
"In my line of work, you get all kinds of information from a broader spectrum. Last year, I happened to have been accosted by people I know, and then the agenda was, let's discuss SML. At the time, I was not too charitable with this company," Mr Amoah said.
After visiting SML's facilities, however, the Executive Secretary of COPEC said his initial scepticism about the firm changed and pointed to even greater revenue performance from upstream operations.
"If the downstream is able to give us GH¢20 billion within four years, I can assure the upstream can do three times more,” Mr Amoah stated.
He urged political leaders to ensure that the country verified reported production volumes from international oil companies.
SML organised a well attended ceremony in Tema yesterday to celebrate five years of real-time monitoring and revenue assurance in the downstream petroleum sector during which it officially unveiled its monitoring systems for solid minerals and upstream petroleum sectors, its additional revenue assurance mandate.
The new mandate builds on its track record of digitising fuel audits and plugging revenue leakages in the downstream petroleum industry.
The company, which began in 2018 under a subcontract from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), has helped to close significant gaps in taxable petroleum product volumes, boosting government revenue and modernising oversight systems.
The Director of Support Services at SML, Dr Yaa Serwaa Sarpong, in a keynote address, said the company’s story began with a bold vision to support governments in safeguarding national revenue through end-to-end audit and revenue assurance services.
“Even at that early stage, our team demonstrated the value we could bring, combining precision, accountability and technical expertise,” she said at the event, which was also used to introduce SML’s upstream and solid minerals operations.
Dr Sarpong said by 2019, SML had become a primary contractor for the GRA and by 2020, had secured two five-year contracts for transaction audits and downstream petroleum monitoring, both approved by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).
The company’s systems integrated data from the GRA, National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and petroleum depots to centralise oversight and improve tax collection, she added.
Dr Sarpong referred to data which showed that SML’s services had increased taxable monthly petroleum volumes from an average of 208 million litres to 450 million litres, adding that it translated into 14.1 billion litres in captured excess volume and more than GH¢20 billion in additional tax revenue between May 2020 and December 2024.
She said in recognition of SML’s track record in revenue assurance through real-time monitoring, the GRA had expanded the company’s mandate to cover the upstream petroleum and solid minerals sectors.
“This contract was consolidated into one contract — Transaction Audit, Downstream Petroleum Audit, Upstream Petroleum Audit and Solid Minerals Audit, which was approved by PPA in September 2023.
These sectors are now entering a new era of transparency and real-time oversight, thanks to the technological innovation and strategic thinking SML brings to the table,” Dr Sarpong said.
She said SML was at the forefront of an integrated, intelligent revenue monitoring solution, a first-of-its-kind innovative approach in Ghana’s extractive industry.
The company also signalled its intent to expand beyond Ghana, positioning its model as a potential solution to illicit financial flows across Africa.
“African countries lose about $90 billion in illicit financial flows annually, according to the African Development Bank Group.
SML is ready — with the expertise, the tools, track record and groundbreaking innovation — to support that continental transformation,” Dr Sarpong stated.
A supply chain governance expert, Professor Douglas Boateng, described SML's platform as "a generational innovation with the power to reshape how Africa governs, minimises revenue leakages, secures and scales its industrial future."
He stated that SML represented innovation by intention, determination and perseverance" as opposed to innovation by import.
"According to selected global thought leaders, the SML's fused platform, until the end of the third quarter of 2024, was the only known system in an emerging economy operating at scale with proven multi-site, real-time data capture functionality," Prof. Boateng stated.
