Mohammed Amin Adam
Mohammed Amin Adam, an Energy Economist, has debunked the assertion that the discovery of oil and gas will be a curse for the country.
He noted that Ghana could maximize its resources fully if pragmatic measures were adopted to manage them efficiently contrary to those assertions.
Mr. Adam said, “Our oil resource can never be a curse because it will depend on our ability as a nation to manage these resources efficiently for the big benefit of the people.”
In November 2011, Nana Kobina Nketsia, Omanhene of the Essikadu Traditional Area at a forum on oil and gas organized by the Traders Union Congress (TUC), stated that some fisher folks in the Western region had described Ghana’s oil find in that region as a curse because they were yet to reap its benefits.
He said most of these people expected shared prosperity in terms of job creation, but unfortunately they have seen none of that.
But Mr. Adam indicated that “other countries failed not because they did not have the best economic prescriptions about how to manage their resources effectively and the expertise, but because there was no incentive to build the governance mechanism that will ensure the sustenance of the resource, which Ghana is putting in place with the passage of some legislations which will set the tone for a strong foundation for good governance in the oil and gas industry.”
Mr. Adam, who was speaking at an oil and gas seminar organized by Young Professionals and Youth Coalition (YPYC) in Accra, noted that integrating the oil and gas sector with the rest of the economy was crucial.
He said oil is a depletable resource, which should be integrated to other sectors like manufacturing and agriculture to ensure the sustainability of the gains made in the sector.
“Oil is a depletable resource and will finish one day, what we will live with is our agriculture and manufacturing industries. And so how we use the leverage we have from our oil and gas to develop other sectors of the economy so that in our post oil era the economy can remain resolute is what we should rather focus on,” he emphasized.
In his address, the Deputy Minister of Energy, Emmanuel Armah Buah stated that statistics pointed to the fact that an abundance of natural resources, for too many countries, had led to slow economic growth, rising inequality, rampant corruption and even violent conflicts.
He noted that “as Ghana joins the community of oil producing countries, her greatest test and challenge would be to ensure that development opportunity which the oil resources presents will neither be wasted nor transformed into resource curse.”
He added that “oil contracts between the government and oil companies are being negotiated and with annual revenues of several billion dollars on the table, every small detail and percentage matters.”
He indicated that the complexity of the contracts had the potential to create an environment conducive for corruption.
“For this reason, government has found it imperative that the process surrounding oil agreements is fully transparent. In this way, ordinary citizens, the media and civil society will be able to scrutinize all processes and hold government accountable,” Mr. Buah noted.
By Esther Awua
