Executive Director of the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Benjamin Boakye, has suggested that Ghana’s energy and extractive sectors are gradually becoming a ‘graveyard’ for investors.
According to him, successive governments have made poor decisions which have resulted in the lack of transparency and investor interest in the energy and extractive sectors.
Speaking at a stakeholder forum organised by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), the ACEP boss argued that declining production of gold and oil has impacted significantly the extractive sector.
For the energy sector, Ben Boakye attributed his assertion to the inefficiencies and debt accumulated which amount to US$1.3 billion and is projected to possibly hit US$2.5 billion by the end of 2022.
“Ghana is gradually becoming a graveyard as investors are no longer interested in the country. Production from the extractive sector has been declining, no serious efforts are being made to increase production," the report by norvanreports.com quoted Benjamin Boakye.
“…And moreover, decisions by government pertaining to the sector have been poor,” he added.
Meanwhile, gold which is a key export commodity for Ghana, declined in production by 29.9 percent to record over 2.8 million ounces in 2021 from 4.02 million ounces in 2020.
In addition, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) said Ghana’s crude oil production declined by 17.7 percent from 66.93 million barrels (bbls) in 2020 to 55.06 million bbls in 2021.
The low production volume, according to the petroleum revenue watchdog [PIAC] was attributed to the reduced production in all three oil producing fields.
Benjamin Boakye, Executive Secretary for ACEP