Abstract:
Studies on Ghana’s fledgling oil economy have preponderantly focused
on how to avoid the resource ‘curse.’ They are overly endogenous in
outlook and substance. This paper acknowledges the fortitude of the
internal concerns and prescriptions, but argues that addressing regional
challenges and corollaries are equally critical to the viability of Ghana’s
oil industry. The study makes the case that the rate of discovery of oil in
West Africa and its exigencies such as the demarcating of exclusive
maritime economic zones; transnational security threats; and ECOWAS
protocols on free movement of persons, establishment, the environment,
and human rights have conjoined the fate of the oil-producing states. It
proposes a collective regional—policy-oriented—natural resource
management approach through progressive foreign policy choices to
prevent the identified challenges and threats from across the sub-region
from bedevilling the oil sector.