The Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Mr. Godwin Kudzo Tameklo , has affirmed his resolve to collaborate with the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) and academia to drive the country’s downstream petroleum industry.
He made the comments when a delegation from the University led by the Dean of School of Petroleum Studies, Prof Richard Amorin, paid a courtesy call on him on Tuesday, October 20 2026, to discuss ways the two organisations can work together.
The NPA boss said academia has a very important role to play in the development and progress of the downstream industry in Ghana.
“We would want to continue the engagement with academia because we strongly believe that it will propel the downstream industry, because what academia does is to come up with innovative ways of doing things,” Mr. Tameklo said.
Mr. Tameklo also indicated that the Authority would, in the future, explore the possibility of offering internship opportunities to students of the University.
“The Authority will also be looking at the possibility of offering some students of the University internship opportunities in some of the technical departments of the NPA, because sometimes it is good for the students to have first-hand opportunity to experience things for themselves.” he said.
In his response, Prof Amorin, thanked the NPA Chief Executive and his team for their readiness to engage and collaborate with academia and UMaT.
“We want to say thank you for having us and for having the openness to collaborate with us. We will relay this information to the Vice Chancellor, and hopefully we can firm up some of the discussions we have had going forward,” Prof. Amorin said.
Other issues discussed during the visit included special training or secondment opportunities for teaching staff, considering UMaT as part of training under the proposed NPA Centre of Excellence, and considering retooling a lab at UMaT as part of the Centre of Excellence.
Both institutions expressed optimism that the engagement would lead to a formal partnership that bridges the gap between academic research and industry practice.
The NPA remains committed to building strong partnerships with academic institutions as part of its mandate to regulate, oversee and monitor the downstream petroleum industry
