Economic And Social Impact Of The Emerging Ghana Oil Industry

A SYMPOSIUM

Proposed Panel Themes

April

29 and 30, 2010

Howard University

Blackburn Center, Washington, D.C.

Panel 1 – April 29 10: 15 am – 11:45 am

– Room 148

Good Governanceand the Emerging Oil and Gas Industry in

Ghana

Good

governancerequires fair legal frameworks that are enforced

impartially. It also requires full protection of human rights, particularly

those of minorities. Impartial enforcement of laws requires an independent

judiciary and an impartial and incorruptible police force. What good governance

practicesexist or need to be

put in place in Ghana for the emerging oil and gas industry?

PANEL 2 April 29 10: 15 – 11:45 am –

Room 150

“GHANA

OIL BUSINESS CONTRACTS: QUESTIONS AND DOUBTS ABOUT TRANSPARENCY”

Suspicions andviews have emerged among some active Ghanaians indicating lack of

adequate transparency regarding contracts the government of Ghana, through the

Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has signed with oil exploration

companies. These suspicions have fueled social cynicism towards the oil

discovery enterprise of Ghana engendering rancorous national discourse. Thus,

it is relevant to ask the question whether the conduct of GNPC opened or closed

transparency in Ghana’s oil discovery process. Hence the panel subject: “Oil

Business Contracts: Questions and Doubts about Transparency.”

Panel 3 April 29 2:00 – 3:45 pm – Room 148

Will the emerging oil and gas industry in Ghana help transform the

Ghanaian economy?

At the time of self-government in 1951,

82% of the labor force in the country was engaged subsistence agriculture/cocoa

farming or petty trading while 18% was employed on a wage/salary basis.

Two-fifths of those in wage/salary employment were in the public sector. After

short-lived attempts by the CPP administration under Kwame Nkrumah to transform

the economy through industrialization, the structure of the economy is no

different from what it was in the pre-independence years. After over 25 years

of World Bank/IMF prescribed programs of ERP, SAP and HIPC, one of the

over-riding consequences of these programs in Ghana has been a shrinking of the

formal sector and the expansion of the informal sector.

Between 1991 and 2002, the informal sector including agriculture accounted for

83.6% of total employment. By 2005/2006 the informal sector employment reached

86.7%. In these informal sector employment opportunities, poverty levels have

remained high, productivity levels low, and decent work deficits are widespread.

Under SAP and HIPC programs persistent unemployment, under-employment, and

growth in precarious forms of employment have remained the central features of

the Ghanaian economy. How might the oil and gas revenues help reverse such

trends?

We need to ask the question: Will Ghana

use the oil and gas revenue in order to achieve the structural transformation

of the country’s economy away from over-reliance on primary production, and the

reduction of the massive size of the informal sector?

Panel 4 April 29 2:00 – 3:45 pm – Room 150

The Extractive Industry Sectorof the Ghanaian

Economy

Ghana is rich in gold, bauxite,

manganese, diamonds, and other minerals. Ghana’s gold has been the basis of a

well-established extractive industry (EI) for decades. Because such resources

are typically limited and non-renewable, the development of

EI cannot be a long-term foundation for

the economy. However, it is possible for

government to exploit such resources

and invest the revenues so as to create sustainable

growth and development. What lessons

have been learned from the existing EI in the country?

Panel 5 April 30 10:15 – 11: 45 am – Hilltop

Managing the oil and gas revenue in Ghana: What lessons can be

learned from other countries?

Numerous studies have linked natural

resources such as oil and gas to negative outcomes such as conflict,

authoritarianism, high corruption, economic instability, increased poverty, and

the destruction of the social contract. The oil curse thus threatens the

limited signs of Ghana’s success since 1992 after four decades of

political and economic instability.

What lessons can Ghana draw from other

countries that are rich in natural resources that have successfully managed

revenues from their natural resource wealth to avoid the “oil curse?”

PANEL 6 April 30 10:15 – 11:45 am -

Hilltop

“GHANA

OIL REVENUE – ALTERNATIVES FOR RESOURCES ALLOCATION AND REVENUE UTILIZATION.”

There has been rising expectation by

active citizens regarding potential for enhanced economic development and

upward social transformation of Ghana since public announcement of discovery of

crude oil in commercial quantities off-shore in the country’s West Coast. The

manner in which revenue from Ghana’s oil find could be utilized for positive

economic benefit has been the persistent dominant focus for conversation among

significant number of Ghanaians.

At one extreme, there are Ghanaians who

have tended to see the expected revenue from the oil find as the ultimate

engine for instant economic development of the country. Corollary, There are

Ghanaians and foreign observers who have cautioned against over-expectation of

the amount of revenue from the oil find and the potential economic benefit for

Ghana. The latter group tends to see the expected revenue as a means for preparing

the ground for economic transformation going into the future. In this

regard, this is a suggested subject for panel discussion: “Ghana Oil Revenue –

Alternatives for Resources Allocation and

Revenue Utilization.”

Panel 7 Plenary Session - April

30 12:15 – 1:45 pm - Hilltop

The energy problems of Ghana, how might the oil and gas discovery

help?

Fuel wood is the most used energy

source in the country. Fuel wood consumption and commercial logging for timber

pose an energy and environmental crisis as a result of wood forest depletion. Since

1981, the

annual rate of deforestation in Ghana has been two percent/year or 750 hectares

each year. Ghana's tropical forest area is now just 25 percent of its original

size. Deforestation has claimed an enormous toll through the ages in

environmental damage, economic deterioration and human misery. This

especially affects remote rural communities that have no access to fuels such

as liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and who depend substantially on burning collected

local biomass for their energy needs. Currently, only about 6.2 per cent of the

entire population used Liquefied

Petroleum Gas(LPG), and about 94 per cent or more than 16.8 million

people used traditional fuel such as charcoal, firewood and crop residue,

despite their inconvenience and inefficiency.

Will the emerging oil and gas industry

offer a solution to the impending energy

crisisin the country?

PANEL 7 – Plenary Session - April 30

12:15 – 1:45 pm - Hilltop

“GHANA

OIL DRILLING: CONSIDERING BETTER ALTERNATIVES TO NATURAL GAS FLARING.”

In

the context of rising globalization, economically and technologically powerful

non-state private corporations dominate the crude oil industry business with

implications for foreign policy action decision-making involving the nations

where the corporate actors are based. In short, the oil business has become

very globalized irrespective of the geographical location of the oil

find. In some instances, the globalized oil business entities have not

been seen to have acted in a fair manner towards people in the communities

where they drill for oil. In this instance, it is germane to ask whether

participation of foreign of foreign oil companies in Ghana have helped or

harmed development of the oil industry in the country.

Sponsors: Department of African

Studies, Howard University in collaboration with the CPP of the Washington, DC

Metropolitan Area.

Speakers

will include representatives from the World Bank, Oxfam, Center for Global

Development, Revenue Watch Institute, the academia, and Embassies in Washington

D.C.

Contact:

Kojo Arthur - adinkraba2@yahoo.com (Tel. 301-592-7615)

Yaw Adu-Otu - aduasare1@hotmail.com

(Tel. 703-615-1821)

Dr. Peter Intsiful - pintsiful@howard.edu