Mustapha Hamid Is New CEO of National Petroleum Authority

A former Minister for Inner City and Zongo Development, Dr. Mustapha Abdul Hamid, has been appointed the new Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA).

Hamid, a former Islamic Studies lecturer at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), will take over at the position that was left vacant by Hassan Tampuli who is now the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gushiegu.

The new NPA boss occupied a few other positions in the Nana Akufo-Addo administration between 2017 and the end of 2020. He was the administration’s first Minister of Information, an honour that was seen as a promotion for being a long-time spokesperson for the president while Akufo-Addo was a presidential hopeful.

Hamid was also the inaugural Minister for the now-defunct Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development.

The 50-year-old academic is also a journalist and an advertiser. He was an editor of The Daily Statesman as well as a news editor at Choice FM, an Accra-based radio station whose frequency now belongs to Kasapa FM.

He was also a Client Service Manager at Majique Media and Research Systems (MMRS), one of the oldest existing full-service advertising agencies in Ghana.

About the NPA

The National Petroleum Authority was established in 2005 by an Act of Parliament (Act 691).

The body is tasked with regulating the downstream or distribution phase of the petroleum industry in Ghana. As such, the NPA has reportedly 5,000 service providers as well as a plethora of international corporate partners including BP and Trafigura.

The position of NPA boss is thought to be one of the most enviable jobs in every government’s administration since the corporation was established.

Revenues calculated at the end of 2020 said the NPA made about $5 billion, or nearly GH₵ 30 billion. in sales.