Macroeconomic Governance • 21 Aug 2024 What Ghana’s latest “judgment debt” says about accountability On 26th January 2021, an arbitration panel sitting in London, ruled against Ghana in a dispute between the country and a subsidiary of Swiss energy trading giant, Trafigura, about an aborted 107 MW power plant. Since the arbitration outcome itself was not appealable, the only way around it was to... read more
Development Finance Governance • 11 Aug 2024 The strange case of Ghana “first” gold refinery & its “broke” investor A first of its kind A few days ago, the government of Ghana launched at a lavish ceremony a facility that it called, “Ghana’s first commercial gold refinery”. At the event, the country’s leaders described the moment as destiny-changing; centuries of exporting raw gold was finally at an end. The... read more
Economic Development • 5 Aug 2024 Will Ghana’s Stock Market ever work? A few days ago, I decided to catch up with Tullow Ghana Ltd, a company some of us in the policy community keep an eye on because it is Ghana’s largest oil producer and the only company that has put any serious money in the country’s upstream petroleum sector in... read more
Social Policy • 4 Aug 2024 Ghana’s ambulance saga is crazier than you think In December 2021, Ghana’s Attorney General started prosecuting the Opposition parliamentarian (MP) giving the government its biggest headaches in the powerful finance committee mandated with clearing the government’s budget. As the “ranking member” of the committee, the MP was the Opposition’s point man on finance matters and was critical to... read more
Political Governance • 1 Aug 2024 A Petro-Hub landgrab in Western Ghana stirs Anger A number of community activist groups in Nzemaland, in Southwestern Ghana, are currently in discussions with civil society organisations like IMANI and ACEP about their options in a situation where the government of Ghana is masterminding a landgrab against their economic rights. The origin of their grievance lies in a... read more
Development Finance Governance • 1 Aug 2024 World Bank funding of luxury condos in Ghana endanger insurance industry The World Bank, as we all know, is about financing development to eliminate poverty. Eliminating poverty in the developing world where it is most endemic entails investing in the productive capacity of the economy to put millions in decent, empowering, nation-transforming work. In most economies one cannot talk about “productive... read more
