Escaping the ' Oil Curse ' : Is Ghana on the right path?
Abstract
Evidence from around the world has shown that oil discovery could be a curse or a blessing. In some countries such as Canada, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom, oil has proven to be a blessing. On the contrary, some sub-Saharan African countries such as Nigeria, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea are experiencing what is known as the ' oil curse ' . Ghana, on the other hand, started oil production on 15th December 2010, and endeavoured to escape the ' oil curse'. This paper critically looks at eight years of oil production in Ghana using the resource curse as a framework. It argues that though it might be a bit early to decidedly say, Ghana ' s oil and gas sector currently exhibit signs of both a curse and blessing, our paper reinforces existing scholarly work that points us to the challenge of establishing simplistic correlations between extraction and resource curse. It further provides some suggestions on how to address what we capture as signs of the oil curse.
Keywords: Ghana, resource governance, oil production, resource curse
Emmanuel Graham, PhD Student, York University; Email: graham19@yorku.ca
Ishmael Ackah, Local Content Secretariat, Ghana Energy Commission; Email: ackish85@yahoo.com
Nathan Andrews, Assistant Professor, University of Northern British Columbia; Email: nathan.andrews@unbc.ca
Ransford E. Van Gyampo, Associate Professor, University of Ghana; Email: vangyampo@yahoo.com
References
ACEP, 2016. "Oiling the Wheels of Quality Education in Ghana", Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) Report May 2016, available at https://new-acep-static1.s3.amazonaws.com/ (accessed 7.4.2019).
Ackah, I. 2016. "Sacrificing Cereals for Crude: Has Oil Production Slowed Agriculture Growth in Ghana?", SSRN, available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2745904.
Acosta, A. M. and Heuty, A. 2009. "Can Ghana Avoid the Oil Curse? A Prospective Look into Natural Resource Governance", Policy briefing prepared for the UK ' s Department for International Development (DfID), available at: http://www2.ids.ac.uk/gdr/cfs/pdfs/Ghana_oil_curse_DFIDbriefing _May09.pdf (accessed 12.9.2016).
Adam, M. A. 2013. "The Money Trail and Economics of Oil and Gas", In: Handbook on Oil and Gas for Journalists. Accra: International Institute of ICT Journalism Penplusbytes.
Andrews, N. 2013. "Community Expectations from Ghana ' s New Oil Find: Conceptualizing Corporate Social Responsibility as a GrassrootsOriented Process", Africa Today 60(1): 54 €“75.
Andrews, N. 2016. "A Swiss-Army Knife? A Critical Assessment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Ghana", Business and Society Review 121(1): 59 €“83.
Aryeetey, E. and Ackah, I. 2018. "The Boom, the Bust, and the Dynamics of Oil Resource Management in Ghana", WIDER Working Paper 89: 21.
Asafu-Adjaye, J. 2010. The Inter-Sectoral Impacts of Oil Production in Ghana- Estimates and Policy Implications.
Asante, K. 2009. "Managing People ' s Expectation for Ghana ' s Oil", Centre for Democratic Development Ghana (CDD-GHANA).
Auty, R. M. 1993. Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies: The Resource Curse Thesis. London: Routledge, available at: http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=166395 (accessed 9.3. 2017).
Auty, R. M. 2001. Resource Abundance and Economic Development. Oxford University Press.
Ayelazuno, J. A. 2014. "Oil Wealth and the Well-being of the Subaltern Classes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Analysis of the Resource Curse in Ghana", Resources Policy 40: 66 €“73.
Boschini, A. D., Pettersson, J. and Roine, J. 2007. "Resource Curse or Not: A Question of Appropriability", Scandinavian Journal of Economics 109(3): 593 €“617.
Brunnschweiler, C. N. and Bulte, E. H. 2008. "The Resource Curse Revisited and Revised: A Tale of Paradoxes and Red Herrings", Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 55(3): 248 €“264.
Bybee, A. N. and Johannes, E. M. 2014. "Neglected but Affected: Voices from the Oil-Producing Regions of Ghana and Uganda", African Security Review 23(2): 132 €“144.
Carmody, P. 2011. The New Scramble for Africa. Cambridge, UK ; Malden Mass: Polity Press.
Cavnar, A. 2008. "Averting the Resource Curse in Ghana: The Need for Accountability", Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDDGHANA) 9(3): 1 €“4.
Collier, P. and Hoeffler, A. 1998. "On Economic Causes of Civil War", Oxford economic papers 50(4): 563 €“573.
Collier, P. and Hoeffler, A. 2005. "Resource Rents, Governance, and Conflict", Journal of Conflict Resolution 49(4): 625 €“633.
Cramer, C. 2002. "Homo Economicus Goes to War: Methodological Individualism, Rational Choice and the Political Economy of War", World Development 30(11): 1845 €“1864.
Davis, G. A. 1995. "Learning to love the Dutch disease: Evidence from the Mineral Economies", World Development 23(10): 1765 €“1779.
Davis, G. A. and Tilton, J. E. 2005. "The Resource Curse", Natural Resources Forum 29(3): 233 €“242.
Davis, J. M., Fedelino, A. and Ossowski, R. 2003. Fiscal Policy Formulation and Implementation in Oil-Producing Countries. International Monetary Fund.
Debrah, E. and Graham, E. 2015. "Preventing the Oil Curse Situation in Ghana: The Role of Civil Society Organisations", Insight on Africa 7(1): 21 €“41.
Dunning, T. 2008. Crude Democracy: Natural Resource Wealth and Political Regimes. Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gelb, A. H. 1988. Oil Windfalls: Blessing or Curse? World Bank.
Gelb, A. H. 2011. "Economic Diversification and the Role of Finance. In: Beyond the Curse: Policies to Harness the Power of Natural Resources. Washington, D.C: International Monetary Fund (IMF), pp. 66 €“93.
Graham, E., Ackah, I. and Gyampo, R. E. V. 2016. "Politics of Oil and Gas in Ghana", Insight on Africa 8(2): 131 €“141.
Gyampo, R. E. V. 2011. "Saving Ghana from Its Oil: A Critical Assessment of Preparations so Far Made", Africa Today 57(4): 49 €“69. DOI: 10.2979/africatoday.57.4.49.
Gyampo, R. E. V. 2014. "Making Ghana ' s Oil Money Count: Lessons from Gold Mining", International Journal of Development and Economic Sustainability 2(1): 25 €“38.
Gyampo, R. E. V., Kuditchar, N. L. and Asare, B. E. 2011. "First One Hundred Days of Oil Production in Ghana", African Research Review 5(2): 16 €“ 28.
Gyimah-Boadi, E. and Prempeh, H. K. 2012. "Oil, Politics, and Ghana ' s Democracy", Journal of Democracy 23(3): 94 €“108.
Haber, S. and Menaldo, V. 2011. "Do Natural Resources Fuel Authoritarianism? A Reappraisal of the Resource Curse", American Political Science Review 105(01): 1 €“26.
Hamilton, K. and Ley, E. 2011. "Sustainable Fiscal Policy for Mineral Based Economies", Beyond the Curse: Policies to Harness the Power of Natural Resources.
Humphreys, M., Sachs, J. D. and Soros, J. E. S. F. by G (eds) (2007) Escaping the Resource Curse. Columbia University Press.
Idemudia, U. 2012. "The Resource Curse and the Decentralization of Oil Revenue: The Case of Nigeria", Journal of Cleaner Production 35: 183 €“193.
Jensen, N. and Wantchekon, L. 2004. "Resource Wealth and Political Regimes in Africa", Comparative Political Studies 37(7): 816 €“841.
Kankam, D. and Ackah, I. 2014. "The Optimal Petroleum Fiscal Regime for Ghana: An Analysis of Available Alternatives", International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy 4(3): 400 €“410.
Kopinski, D., Polus, A. and Tycholiz, W. 2013. "Resource Curse or Resource Disease? Oil in Ghana", African Affairs 112(449): 583 €“601.
Lewis, S. R. 1984. "Development Problems of the Mineral-rich Countries", in: Economic Structure and Performance. Elsevier, pp. 157 €“177.
Malothra, H., Bartsch, U., Cuc, M., and Katz, M. 2004. Lifting the Oil Curse: Improving Petroleum Revenue Management in Sub-Saharan Africa. International Monetary Fund.
Mehlum, H., Moene, K. and Torvik, R. 2006a. "Cursed by Resources or Institutions?" The World Economy 29(8): 1117 €“1131.
Mehlum, H., Moene, K. and Torvik, R. 2006b. "Institutions and the Resource Curse", The Economic Journal 116(508): 1 €“20.
Obeng-Odoom, F. 2014a. "Black Gold in Ghana: Crude Days for Fishers and Farmers?", Local Environment 19(3): 259 €“282.
Obeng-Odoom, F. 2014b. "Measuring What? "Success" and "Failure" in Ghana ' s Oil Industry", Society and Natural Resources 27(6): 656 €“ 670.
Obeng-Odoom, F. 2015. "Global Political Economy and Frontier Economies in Africa: Implications from the Oil and Gas Industry in Ghana", Energy Research and Social Science 10: 41 €“56.
Odonkor, E. 2016. "Ghana government Violating Petroleum Revenue Management law", In: Ghana Business News, available at: https://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2016/03/31/ghana-govtviolating-petroleum-revenue-management-law/ (accessed 6.1.2019).
Okpanachi, E. and Andrews N. 2012. "Preventing the Oil "Resource Curse" in Ghana: Lessons from Nigeria", World Futures 68(6): 430 €“450.
Perelman, M. 2003. "Myths of the Market Economics and the Environment", Organization and Environment 16(2): 168 €“226.
Phillips, J., Hailwood, E. and Brooks, A. 2016. "Sovereignty, the ' Resource Curse ' and the Limits of Good Governance: A Political Economy of Oil in Ghana", Review of African Political Economy 43(147): 26 €“42.
PIAC, 2017. "Public Interest Accountability Committee-Analysis of Petroleum Receipts from 2011 to 2017", available at: http://www.piacghana.org/portal/29/33/analysis-of-receipts (accessed 6.4.2019).
PRMA, 2011. "Petroleum Revenue Management Act 2011", available at: http://www.mofep.gov.gh/sites/default/files/reports/Petroleum_R evenue_Management_Act_%202011.PDF (accessed 29.8.2017).
Roll, M. (ed.) 2011. Fuelling the World - Failing the Region? Oil Governance and Development in Africa ' s Gulf of Guinea. Abuja: Friedrich-EbertStiftung.
Ross, M. L. 2001. Does Oil Hinder Democracy? World Politics 53(3): 297322. Rosser, A. 2006. "Escaping the Resource Curse", New Political Economy 11(4): 557 €“570.
Rostow, W. W. 1960. "The Problem of Achieving and Maintaining a High Rate of Economic Growth: A Historian ' s View", The American Economic Review 50(2): 106 €“118.
Sachs, J. D. and Warner, A. 1995. "Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth", available at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w5398 (accessed 7.12.2016).
Sarraf, M. and Jiwanji, M. 2001. "Beating the resource curse: the case of Botswana", Environment Department working paper; no. 83. Environmental economics series. World Bank, Washington, DC., available at https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/18304?local e-attribute=fr (accessed 7.4.2016).
Siakwah, P. 2017. "Are natural resource windfalls a blessing or a curse in democratic settings? Globalised assemblages and the problematic impacts of oil on Ghana's development." Resources Policy (52): 122133.
Sovacool, B. K., and Andrews, N. 2015. "Does transparency matter? Evaluating the governance impacts of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in Azerbaijan and Liberia." Resources Policy (45): 183-192.
Sovacool, B. K., Walter, G., Van de Graaf, T., and Andrews, N. 2016. "Energy governance, transnational rules, and the resource curse: Exploring the effectiveness of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)." World Development (83): 179-192.
Stevens, P. 2003. "Resource Impact: a Curse or a Blessing?", Investment Policy 22: 5 €“6.
Sunley, E. M., Baunsgaard, T. and Simard, D. 2003. "Revenue from the Oil and Gas Sector: Issues and Country Experience", Fiscal policy formulation and implementation in oil-producing countries: 153 €“ 183.
Van Alstine, J. 2014. "Transparency in Resource Governance: The Pitfalls and Potential of "New Oil" in Sub-Saharan Africa", Global Environmental Politics 14(1): 20 €“39.
Weinthal, E. and Luong, P. J. 2006. "Combating the Resource Curse: An Alternative Solution to Managing Mineral Wealth", Perspectives on Politics 4(1): 35 €“53.
Yates, D. A. 2012. The Scramble for African Oil: Oppression, Corruption and War for Control of Africa ' s Natural Resources. London : New York: Pluto Press.
Yaw, O. J. J. 2013. "The role of Information Accessibility in achieving Transparency and Accountability in Ghana ' s oil Industry: A reality check from Cape Three Point", Masters Dissertation: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, available at https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/handle/11250/265555 (accessed 6.4.2019).
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright © by Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Dar es Salaam
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for short extracts in fair dealing, for research or private study, critical scholarly review or discourse with an acknowledgement.
The African Review: A Journal of African Politics, Development and International Affairs [ISSN 0856-0056 (Print) & ISSN 1821-889X (Online)] is published bi-annually, June and December by the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 35042 €“ Dar es Salaam €“ Tanzania
