Sustainable Management of Petroleum Resources: An Examination of the Ghana Heritage Fund (GHF) of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2010 (Act 815)

Abstract

Ghana is the latest country in Africa to join the league of oil producing countries last year (2010) when she first pumped oil from her jubilee field. As a developing country, the oil revenue is expected to contribute to an increase in at least 23% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Attention is now on Ghana as to how the country can manage its oil resources to be able to eradicate poverty among its people i.e. sustainable economic growth and human resource development; considering the fact that oil resources in Africa have rather brought about corruption, stagnation and economic decline. The aim of this paper is to examine the Ghana Heritage Fund (GHF). Primary and secondary sources such as legal documents, publications, articles, journals, books and internet sources were used to do quantitative, qualitative, comparative and scenario analysis. The paper found out that if all the tenets of the Ghana Heritage Fund are properly implemented and astutely managed as planned, the Fund will bring lasting use of the oil revenue in Ghana. The paper recommends that in order to implement and benefit from the Ghana Heritage Fund, it is important for the Government of Ghana to review the concept of 'excess petroleum revenue' as contained in the act. There are still many other issues about the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (Act 815) of 2010 that the paper could not analyze hence there is the need for further critical examination of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (Act 815) of 2010.

Key words: Sustainable Management, Petroleum Resources/Revenue, Ghana Heritage Fund