Ghana risks missing out on the full benefits of its oil wealth unless urgent reforms are made to how petroleum revenues are managed, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has warned. At a recent stakeholders’ forum, PIAC and industry experts called for stronger regulatory oversight, improved project design, and targeted infrastructure investments to reverse declining oil production and ensure the country’s petroleum resources truly fuel long-term development.
The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has called for sweeping reforms in Ghana’s petroleum revenue management framework during a recent X Space webinar that brought together leading economists, governance experts, and stakeholders from the energy sector.
The virtual dialogue, themed “Understanding Ghana’s Petroleum Revenue Management,” focused on ensuring equitable distribution of oil-funded projects, enhancing accountability, and rethinking regulatory structures to attract fresh investments into the sector.
Samuel Bekoe, an economist and extractive governance expert with PIAC, emphasized the importance of designing oil-funded infrastructure projects with measurable impacts. Citing past allocations such as the financing of the Free SHS policy, Bekoe argued that channeling petroleum revenue into visible, high-impact projects makes it easier to monitor outcomes and assess long-term benefits like improvements in literacy.
He advocated for a more collaborative approach between PIAC, the government, and anti-corruption institutions such as the Auditor-General, the Public Accounts Committee, and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to enforce accountability and prevent project mismanagement.
“If we want meaningful results, we must ensure projects go through proper design, approval, and monitoring processes,” he said.
Dr. Theophilus Acheampong, economist and political risk analyst, echoed calls for a national consensus on infrastructure priorities. He cited the success of Terminal 3 at Kotoka International Airport as evidence that strategic investment in high-return infrastructure is key.
“We need to agree on transformative projects like major trunk roads and allocate a defined share of petroleum revenues through ABFA and GIF to finance them,” he said.
However, he warned that revenue management is only one side of the equation — without boosting oil production, there will be no revenue to manage. Acheampong criticized the regulatory uncertainty and politicization of Ghana’s oil sector, which he believes have deterred investors and caused a production decline.
To revitalize the upstream industry, he recommended overhauling the fiscal and regulatory regimes, making Ghana attractive to private equity-backed energy investors, especially as neighboring countries like Côte d’Ivoire surge ahead with major new oil discoveries and developments.
The webinar concluded with a consensus on the need for a well-designed, impact-driven projects funded by oil revenues, stronger collaboration with oversight and anti-corruption bodies, prioritization of high-return infrastructure projects and reforms in the oil sector’s fiscal and regulatory environment to attract investment and increase production.
PIAC was commended for its independent assessments, with participants urging the committee to intensify such engagements and broaden its advocacy beyond revenue tracking to include upstream reforms. With declining oil production and increasing demands for transparency, the call to action is clear: Ghana must reform, prioritize, and invest wisely to ensure that oil wealth delivers real, lasting impact.
