Economy-Wide Impact of Oil Discovery in Ghana

Ghana's oil will start to flow in
2011, maybe even before, and most of its known reserves will
be extracted in the immediate years after. The promise of
oil generates expectations of all sorts, the more so as
Ghana currently grapples with a macroeconomic crisis of
significant proportions. This overview discusses the
Ghana-specific nature of these challenges and explores
possible options to address them. In doing so, it builds on
seven thematic chapters which look at different aspects of
the question: (1) oil facts, (2) political economy, (3)
public financial management, (4) infrastructure, (5) private
sector development, (6) agriculture, and (7) poverty. While
the overview tries to bring together the findings of these
different chapters, further details and discussions on each
of these topics can be found in o f the chapters themselves.
It concludes that while oil revenue will not be large enough
to radically transform Ghana, it could, if improperly
managed, impose enough stress on non-oil sectors to severely
undermine Ghana's medium term development prospects.
Hence the huge premium and responsibilities put on
Ghana's successive authorities to wisely manage the oil
wealth to promote the development of the non-oil sectors.