Yɛ Te Sika So Nanso ɔkɔm Di Yɛn: The Case of Ghana’s Poverty Amid Abundant Oil Resources and Revenues

Ghana remains poor even with the abundance of resources. Against this backdrop, this chapter seeks to answer why after a little over a decade of oil production Ghana remains poor. The chapter focuses on the paradox of natural resource abundance (oil and gas) and the increasing levels of poverty in Ghana. It assesses the various trends over time (since oil discovery) by examining the possible causes and why they persist. The chapter is situated within the critical political economy tradition on extractive industry scholarship which repeatedly highlights how, despite significant optimism centered on the developmental prospects of natural resources, socio-economic development through the extraction of resources such as oil is often hindered by the conditions of neoliberal globalization. Using a qualitative approach and relying on both primary and secondary data, we argue that, compared with the mining sector Ghana’s oil and gas sector appears to be doing well due to some reforms in the legal and institutional frameworks in the sector. Yet, Ghana failed to benefit from the oil sector due to the following reasons; attractive oil sector, sweet deals with other oil multinational corporations, limited oil revenues, and the weaknesses of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) amongst others.