Posted: Daily Guide |dailyguideghana.com
hursday, 14 October 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Even before Ghana pours its first oil, many people have warned the country’s managers to avoid the Nigerian and Chadian experience since these countries have struggled for several years to overcome the various challenges in the oil and gas industry.
Tax Advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEB), Dr Joe Amoako-Tuffuor has called for prudent management of revenue that would accrue from the oil industry.
Speaking in an interview with DAILY GUIDE after a roundtable discussion put together by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) on the theme, ‘How Ghana plans to manage its petroleum revenues:
A step towards transparency, accountability and governance standards,” he urged the leadership of the nation to be cautious about the way they handle the oil resources and other issues.
“We have to be very cautious; we have to seek national consensus in every decision that we make because this is a collective asset,” he warned.
He stressed the need for revenue that would be generated from the oil proceeds to be invested into productive investments.
Dr Amoako-Tuffuor also talked about the Ecuador experience where they wanted to share the oil revenue among the citizenry depending on their abilities, noting, “They earmarked so much that the Ministry of Finance had nothing else to manage the economy.”
“If you rush… the oil will settle the economy, and before you know it agricultural will collapse and food will be a problem.
Nigeria used to produce cocoa, groundnut and even before they knew it, nobody was not growing cocoa anymore,” he noted, emphasizing that “Nigerian became a net food importer because oil money can be easy to get… so why do you want to go and grow cocoa?”
He warned the managers of the Ghanaian economy against over-dependence on oil as the main source of revenue for the country.
Dr Amoako-Tuffuor said Ghana should therefore learn lessons from countries such as Norway and Trinidad and Tobago which have managed to use oil and gas as a basis for development and good planning, disclosing that Botswana, which was so poor, has managed to use its diamond to break themselves to become a middle-income country.
He also talked about how Norway had successful used the oil revenue to transform its economy, adding, “What I like about Norway is their sense of prudence and caution.
They’ve been very methodical in planning and in the way they have managed their resources; even the way they have managed their national oil company is exceptional.”
He said, “All politicians in Norway have come to understand that when it comes to oil money the rules are very clear, everyone must follow the rules. You don’t have to debate it anymore.”
For this reason, he stressed the need to build consensus in Ghana to manage revenue that would be generated from the country’s oil.
“It is not up to politicians alone to decide, the whole society must build consensus and put down the framework along which everyone would walk,” he said.