Ghana repeating same old mistakes in untapping natural resource regime - IEA

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has said Ghana’s natural resource regime has been inadequately untapped as a result of concessions being offered to foreign companies.

According to the Director of Research at the IEA, Dr John Kwakye, the results of these lavish concessions has been the impoverishment of Ghana’s economy and mining communities.

Reacting to the mid-year budget review presented last week at a press briefing in Accra, Dr Kwakye on Tuesday, July 28 said; “When we discovered oil in 2007 and started commercial production in 2010, it was thought that we would learn from the mistakes of the defective mineral fiscal regimes. Unfortunately, we have been repeating the same folly of signing concession contracts whereby investors are given ownership of oil blocks while Ghana barely benefits from meagre royalties, taxes carried and participatory interest”

“Concession contracts only serve the interest of foreign investors and there are only a few Ghanaian cohorts. However, they are bad and must stop,” he lamented.

Since the discovery of oil and production in Ghana, the country’s share of the total output is estimated at about only 15 percent and valued at around US$15 billion.

This means, foreign oil companies that have concessionaire agreements in Ghana have pocketed 85 percent or nearly US$30 billion of the total proceeds from oil revenue.