Big oil is coming to Ghana and the outcome could be explosive, civil society warns
ACCRA(IRIN) – Two oil exploration companies recently said the discovery of an estimated three billion barrels of oil is set to propel the country into the league of the big African oil producers when production starts in 2010.
Some 18.2 percent of Ghana’s 22 million people are deemed “extremely poor” by the UN as they live on less than a dollar a day, struggling to access basic social services like health, water and education.
The potential for the oil finds to transform the economy and the lives of the poorest people is manifold.
Ghana’s officials, however, say they are concerned that the oil discovery is “perhaps the greatest managerial challenge” facing the West African country in the 51 years since it gained independence.
“At this point we acknowledge that we lack the know-how to manage this enormous resource but we are blessed with the experience of others,” said Francis Ackah, engineering manager of the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC), the agency which oversees the country’s petroleum resources.
In March 2008 Ghanaian President John Kufuor, speaking at an extractive industries forum, warned that “instead of being a blessing, oil sometimes proves the undoing of many… nations who come by this precious commodity”.
Source: GhanaWeb
