A sudden and forceful raid on Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited (SML) has thrown Ghana’s petroleum oversight system into turmoil, raising alarms among analysts about a potential rollback of hard-won gains in fuel sector transparency.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) and National Security stormed SML’s offices in Osu and Tema, tearing down the company’s high-tech monitoring infrastructure. The move is widely believed to be the latest escalation in a covert war over control of Ghana’s multi-billion cedi fuel market — a sector long plagued by tax leakages and underreporting.
Sources familiar with the matter believe the attack on SML’s operations is not merely a response to contractual issues. Rather, they suspect an orchestrated push by entrenched industry players — allegedly including oil cartels — who have been resisting the enhanced transparency SML’s systems introduced over the past four years.
What began as a technical partnership to improve revenue assurance has transformed into a flashpoint in the fight between reformists and powerful commercial interests. The real-time monitoring tools that SML deployed reportedly doubled reported fuel volumes in the downstream sector — from 208 million litres per month to over 450 million — exposing billions in previously untracked transactions.
The destruction of those systems, insiders warn, may severely cripple the Customs Division’s ability to track fuel flows in real time, giving room for old leakage loopholes to resurface. There are fears the country could begin to lose millions of cedis daily if oversight is not immediately restored.
Despite ongoing cooperation between SML and the OSP since March 2025, and despite the company being cleared of wrongdoing in a 306-page KPMG audit ordered by the President, critics say vested interests have ramped up efforts to discredit and disable the firm.
The company’s work, which began in 2020, is credited with helping the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) consistently meet its petroleum revenue targets even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its systems helped the government recover over GH¢20 billion in taxes that might have otherwise slipped through the cracks.
However, the fight to retain this system has intensified in recent months. Observers note that both Parliament’s Energy Committee and the GRA have spoken favorably of SML’s contributions, yet the backlash has only grown stronger.
In 2019 alone, before SML’s involvement, Ghana lost an estimated GH¢3.4 billion due to untaxed petroleum products. The scale of historical leakage has made SML’s monitoring platform a threat to those who benefited from opaque practices.
Tensions further escalated when SML filed a GH¢21 million defamation suit in response to a wave of public criticism led by high-profile journalists and civil society organizations. The accusations centered on procurement and contract disputes, but some believe those narratives may be masking deeper economic motivations.
With the destruction of SML’s infrastructure, observers say Ghana stands at a crossroads. Either the country recommits to digital oversight that has saved billions or risks ceding control back to networks allegedly responsible for past losses.
For now, the silence from the OSP and National Security on the exact reasons behind the raids only deepens the mystery — and raises the stakes.
