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1. Capital Flight from Natural Resource-Dependent African Countries: Updated Estimates and Analysis for the Cases of Cameroon, Ghana, and Zambia, 1970-2021

Author:
Léonce Ndikumana
Publication Date:
08-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts Amherst
Abstract:
This paper is part of a project that investigates domestic and global drivers and enablers of capital flight from Cameroon, Ghana, and Zambia, three countries that are significantly endowed in natural resources. It presents estimates of capital flight from these three countries and discusses the key drivers of the phenomenon. The results show that as of 2021, estimated total capital flight stood at $71.1 billion for Cameroon, $50 billion for Ghana, and $71.5 billion for Zambia. External borrowing and, in the cases of Zambia and Cameroon, trade misinvoicing, are key correlates of capital flight. While external borrowing directly and indirectly drives capital flight, trade misinvoicing constitutes an important mechanism of unrecorded cross-border capital flows. This study contributes to the efforts to uncover the mechanisms and enablers of capital flight from Africa, with the aim of shedding light on possible strategies to curb further capital outflows in the context of efforts to scale up and diversify development financing to support recovery from global crises, the transition to green growth, and sustainable development in Africa.
Topic:
Development, Political Economy, Natural Resources, Capital Flight, and Trade
Political Geography:
Africa, Zambia, Ghana, and Cameroon

2. Tropical rainforests and global warming

Author:
Mike Speirs
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
Disappearing tropical forests are high on the global climate change and biodiversity agendas. A survey of progress towards setting up a ‘results-based payments’ (rewards) scheme known as REDD+ explores international funding for forests, with evidence from Bolivia, Ghana and Indonesia. The need to tackle the drivers of deforestation is emphasised, including land use changes for crop cultivation and livestock. The roles of indigenous people and local communities in ensuring equitable and effective natural resource management and forest conservation are underlined in the survey.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, Environment, Natural Resources, Food, Investment, Land Rights, and Carbon Emissions
Political Geography:
Indonesia, Ghana, Bolivia, and Global Focus

3. Resource-Backed Loans in Ghana: Risks, Opportunities and Lessons

Author:
Denis Gyeyir
Publication Date:
06-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
Developing countries have trouble financing development mainly due to limited access to capital markets, high cost of borrowing, slow growth, or a mix of these. Countries with natural resource endowments have attempted in the last few decades to leverage these endowments to surmount those challenges. Many of their development efforts focus on closing huge infrastructure gaps. Ghana is a producer of cocoa, minerals, oil and gas—assets that have increasingly featured in the government’s infrastructure financing plans. Ghana’s infrastructure financing totaled USD 23 billion between 2007 and 2020, and annual infrastructure investment will need to reach $9.3 billion by 2030 (13.9 percent of 2019 GDP). Official development funding and private sector financing have been inadequate to meet these infrastructure needs. As a result, the Ghana Infrastructure Plan identifies Chinese infrastructural funding as a source to fill the gap. Ghana’s infrastructure financing has in part relied on leveraging its natural resources. Through resource-backed loans (RBLs), governments (directly or through state-owned companies) borrow funds and repay the loans in physical natural resources or with money from resource-related future income streams. Ghana has entered into three such RBL deals, totaling more than $5 billion, in the last two decades; all three involve Chinese state-owned enterprises as lenders.
Topic:
Natural Resources, Infrastructure, Resource-Backed Loans, and Revenue Management
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

4. Gender and Extractive Governance: Lessons from Existing Legal and Policy Frameworks

Author:
Aubrey Menard and Elizabeth Moses
Publication Date:
07-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
Greater gender equality accompanies economic advancement. However, in countries rich in oil, gas and minerals, economic advancement has not served women and gender minorities as well as men. On the contrary, gender inequality is more pronounced in countries significantly reliant on the extractive sector. The negative impacts of overreliance on the extractive sector appear at both the national level and the sites of major extraction projects. While the gendered issues related to the extractive sector have been broadly acknowledged, efforts to address them are not well developed. This report focuses on gender and governance of the extractive industries, and is part of the larger Gender and Extractives project, funded by the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and the World Bank Multi-Donor Trust Fund, and executed by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) in partnership with the World Resources Institute (WRI). It aims to inform a new generation of gendered OGP commitments in relation to the extractive sector, building on the momentum created by the Break the Roles campaign and the growth in attention now paid to advancing gender equality in the extractive sector. The research examined the legal and policy frameworks in 12 OGP countries: Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Mongolia, Nigeria, Peru, Sierra Leone and Tunisia, identifying 62 laws, policies, regulations, guidelines and other official documents that referenced the extractive sector and gender or women.
Topic:
Economics, Gender Issues, Oil, Natural Resources, Governance, and Gas
Political Geography:
Kenya, Indonesia, Canada, Mongolia, Argentina, Colombia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Peru, and Ghana

5. NRGI Impact: Safeguarding Ghana’s Petroleum Funds and Ensuring a Resilient Recovery

Author:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Publication Date:
11-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
Before the coronavirus pandemic struck Ghana, the country’s economy was relatively strong, with growth forecast at around 5.8 percent in 2020. A month after the country’s first recorded coronavirus case, with both national and global restrictions put in place, the IMF revised this figure down to 1.5 percent. The pandemic also exposed Ghana, with its reliance on mining and oil revenues, to sudden volatility in commodity prices. A significant drop in oil prices caused by the pandemic delayed government plans to increase oil production and reduced expected oil revenues, on which Ghana’s 2020 budget forecasts were built. In order to address short-term needs and raise funds to finance an ambitious coronavirus alleviation program, the government obtained a credit line of $1 billion from the IMF in April 2020, as well as support packages from the World Bank and the African Development Bank. But, with aims to reduce dependence on foreign funds, the government turned its attention to oil revenues to fund the pandemic response. Officials floated plans to free up around $200 million for contingency spending by amending the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) to allow the use of the Ghana Heritage Fund and to request a cap on the Ghana Stabilization Fund. These were met with protests. The Ghana Heritage Fund was established to save and invest a portion of oil revenues in safe assets to benefit future generations once oil deposits are depleted. Around nine percent of petroleum revenues flow into this fund annually, which, as of June 2020, held around $608 million in allocations and interest on investments. The Ghana Stabilization Fund was set up to balance the budget in times of shocks to the economy and unanticipated shortfalls in oil revenues. The minister of finance, subject to parliamentary approval, can cap accruals to the fund. Excess funds above the cap can then be used for debt servicing or for contingency spending.
Topic:
Natural Resources, COVID-19, and Revenue Management
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

6. 2021 Resource Governance Index

Author:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
Decisions about how the oil, gas and mining sectors are governed determine the wellbeing of the billion people living in poverty in resource-rich countries. Where policies and practices ensure informed, inclusive and accountable decision making, natural resources can enable fair, prosperous and sustainable societies, rather than undermine them. The climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic and dramatic changes in global energy markets have increased the stakes of good governance. Complex decisions about how to enable the political and economic adaptations necessary for a managed phaseout of fossil fuels and responsible increase in production of transition minerals sit at the heart of this dual crisis. Governance of the oil, gas and mining sectors will play a central role in the transition away from fossil fuels and the return to progress against poverty. The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) produces the Resource Governance Index (RGI) as a diagnostic tool to measure the governance of oil, gas, and mining sectors in select countries and to highlight opportunities for policy and practice reforms at the global, regional and country levels. The 2021 RGI assesses the governance of extractive sectors in 18 countries, including both established mineral and hydrocarbon producers, as well as new and prospective entrants to natural resource production.
Topic:
Oil, Natural Resources, Governance, Gas, Mining, Sustainability, and Inclusion
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, Central Asia, Middle East, Mongolia, Colombia, South America, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Tanzania, Mexico, Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco, Qatar, Tunisia, Peru, Ghana, Guinea, Guyana, and Democratic Republic of Congo

7. The role of Politics in Attempts to Resolve the Manya-Yilo Conflict in Ghana

Author:
John Narh
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
African Journal on Conflict Resolution
Institution:
The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD)
Abstract:
Conflict over a natural resource deposit is commonplace in many resource-rich African countries. Such is the case at Odugblase in the Eastern Region of Ghana where the Manya Krobo and the Yilo Krobo traditional councils are in a protracted conflict pertaining to their claims of sovereignty over land-sites where limestone is mined – each vying for a greater portion of the mineral royalties set aside for local authorities. This article studies the attempts by the government and the mining company (Ghana Cement Limited) to resolve the Manya-Yilo conflict, in order to understand why none of them was successful. This study finds that the government’s committee of enquiry to resolve the Manya-Yilo conflict was unsuccessful as the investigation process did not adequately involve the traditional councils and there is no political will to enforce the recommendation of the committee. Similarly, a mediation attempt by Ghana Cement Limited was unsuccessful due to the limited involvement of the opponents. The complex political structure, the inadequate regulations for distributing mineral royalties, and weak municipal assemblies are major factors protracting the Manya-Yilo conflict. The traditional councils need to negotiate with each other so that they and their respective municipal assemblies receive the limestone royalties and use the funds to develop the mining community.
Topic:
Politics, Natural Resources, Conflict, and Mediation
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

8. Resource-Backed Loans: Pitfalls and Potentialloan

Author:
David Mihalyi, Aisha Adam, and Jyhjong Hwang
Publication Date:
02-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
Through “resource-backed loans” (RBLs) countries access finance in exchange for, or collateralized by, future streams of income from their natural resource wealth. The authors of this report reviewed countries’ past experiences with RBLs across sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America from 2004 to 2018. They identify risks and opportunities RBLs pose and provide recommendations for countries considering taking RBLs in the future. The researchers identified 52 RBLs, 30 of which were taken by countries in in sub-Saharan Africa and 22 in Latin America. They are distributed across 14 countries in the two regions. Thirty-eight were lent by Chinese policy banks, seven are from commodity traders, four are from other Chinese state-owned enterprises, one is from Korea Exim, one is from Nigeria and one is from Russia's Rosneft. Forty-three of the loans are backed by oil, six by various minerals, two by cocoa, and one by tobacco. The total loan amount represented in the dataset is $164 billion, of which $66 billion went to Africa and $98 billion to Latin America.
Topic:
Natural Resources, Finance, Resource-Backed Loans, and Revenue Management
Political Geography:
Africa, Sudan, Brazil, South America, Venezuela, Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, Ecuador, Guinea, South Sudan, and Congo

9. Africa Increases Control over Natural Resources

Author:
Jędrzej Czerep
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Polish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
From October this year, new rules on the sale of cocoa beans entered into force, agreed between Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana—the crop’s two largest producers in the world—to ensure a profit for farmers. The agreement is an example of a departure from the raw material export model that is unfavourable to African producer countries. This change should increase the stability of African states. These processes will require a revision of the European business approach to Africa and the EU’s trade policy towards the continent.
Topic:
Agriculture, Natural Resources, European Union, Business, Exports, and Trade
Political Geography:
Africa, Europe, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire

10. Ghana's Oil Revenue Management: Convergence of Popular Opinion, the Law, and Practice

Author:
Daniel Armah-Attoh
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afrobarometer
Abstract:
Ghana’s efforts to explore and develop the country’s oil potential, spearheaded by the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC), culminated in the 2007 discovery of oil in commercial quantities offshore at Cape Three Points in the Western region. Three years later, production commenced at the Jubilee Field. Public expectations, already high, were further fuelled by politicians who portrayed oil revenues as a panacea and made their management a campaign issue (McCaskie, 2008). The New Patriotic Party (NPP) promised to use oil revenues to propel Ghana to accelerated economic growth and development and to improve socioeconomic conditions. The National Democratic Congress (NDC) matched that promise and raised the ante by vowing to use some of the oil revenues to create a fund for the development of the region where the resource is located, which played well with traditional leaders in the oil region. Estimates of 600 million barrels of oil in the Jubilee Field (Civil Society Platform, 2011) and more than 900 million more in untapped wells nearby mark Ghana as a potential member of the league of leading oil producers on the African continent. As in Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Sudan, the Republic of Congo, and Equatorial Guinea, this promises spectacular revenues while also threatening the "resource curse" or "Dutch disease" due to mismanagement or dissipation of oil revenues through corrupt government practices (Le Billon, 2005; Basedau, 2005).
Topic:
Economics, Energy Policy, Oil, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana