Business News of Saturday, 23 March 2013
Source: citifmonline
Ghana is 3rd in managing natural resources- ACIF Survey
Ghana has been ranked 3rd in Africa in its strategy for managing natural resources-a survey report has indicated.
The 2013 African capacity indicators report puts Ghana 3rd out of 45 countries in Africa.
The survey aggregates weights of countries’ general strategy for managing natural resources, capacity to develop policies for use of those resources, achievement of developmental results and amongst others; investment in the dynamic capability needed of the nation (dealing with the Dutch disease, degree of economic diversification, use of revenue for development).
At the launch of the report at the Best Western Premier Hotel in Accra on Friday, the Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation, Frannie Leautier in an interview with Citi Business News said Ghana’s rating is as a result of its policy-implementation capacity and the ability to generate results.
She said the Petroleum Revenue Act had contributed significantly to the placement in the ranking.
“I have noted here that Ghana is making strides both on the implementation front and also in the pushing to get development results. But work still needs to go into building dynamic capacity because this is a fast moving field with scientific knowledge and other elements needed.”
Frannie Leautier noted that the outcome of the survey indicated that on the overall, most countries were doing well with strategy but had a major problem with implementation and designing policy.
The survey also discovered that not only were the states needy of capacity but also the corporations that invest in extraction in those countries.
Leautier therefore suggested a partnership between the state and private corporations.
The survey also found that countries that were doing well in natural resource management were concentrating on the value chain.
Frannie Leautier further recommended that Ghana maintained peace and security and macroeconomic-stability.
She said that Ghana needed to manage the interfaces between different sectors of the economy.
“…agriculture, climate change, the impact of the education sector, which skills to focus on so that the country has what it needs to appropriately use the wealth that it has and to make sure that, that also collaborates in the macroeconomic stability through institutions like the West African monetary institute and other areas, the country has an opportunity to work on a regional and continental level,” she said.
