Harnessing Natural Resource Wealth for Development: The case of Ghana

Abstract

Ghana’s economy depends largely on foreign aid and has performed well in recent years in terms of GDP growth after the launch of the economic recovery programme in 1983. In spite of this there has been minimal impact on poverty reduction with rural folks bearing the major brunt of poverty. Ghana on the other hand is endowed with rich natural resources that can prudently be managed to ensure sustainable economic growth, high standards of living and a prosperous new Ghana. The scary thing however, about windfall wealth is that they can be a blessing creating economic prosperity or a curse spawning war, corruption and deindustrialization. The recent discovery of oil and current discussion by government on the concept to adopt in managing oil revenues have also added to the hopes of many Ghanaians for a better life as they wait patiently on ‘Petro-dollars’ to help improve the performance of the economy. Irrespective of which strategy government adopts, engineering a new Ghanaian economy demands policies that uses natural resource revenues to diversify and produce a robust self reliant economy capable of sustaining itself against external shock necessary to avoid the resource curse or Dutch-Disease.

Keywords: National Resources, Diversification, Value Addition, Development, Ghana