FAT-Africa to launch report on accountable resource management

Natural resources present potentially significant opportunity for Ghana with its long standing mining and relatively new oil and gas production. Ghana has been the second the largest gold producing country in Africa and placed 8^th globally.

The discovery of oil and gas in the West cape three points constitutes the largest off-shore discovery in West Africa over the last decade. Therefore, Financial Accountability and Transparency-Africa will be launching a report at the Kofi Annan ICT centre on Wednesday, 13^th July, 2016 at 9:30 am. Ghana’s economy has been resource dependent and most of the revenue for economic growth and development comes from the extractive sector of the country. This amounts to 66% of our exports in 2013 but 6.1 million of the population live in absolute poverty in the country as at 2012.

OXFAM commissioned a research to primarily provide an understanding on how to optimize government’s take from the extractive industries and how much revenues can be channeled into investments that reduce poverty. The research is inspired to find opportunities for civil society to improve revenue management focusing on the possibilities for:

1. Increasing the quantity of revenues that remain in Ghana as a result of the exploitation of the country’s natural resources, and
2. Ensuring that revenues that flow from extractive industries are effectively allocated and utilized towards the reduction of poverty.

The report extensively discusses the technical details of how revenues are collected from the extractive sector in Ghana including the political, economic and social exigencies that shaped the revenues sharing processes.

In conclusion, the revenue from the extractive sector can be put to good and useful use when all the necessary measures such as revenue sharing strategies are place and well managed to benefit the absolute poor in the deprived and remote areas in the country.