An Evaluation of Ghana’s Local Content Legal Framework and Policy Landscape of the Downstream Energy Sub-Sector

This paper examined Ghana’s local content legal framework and policy landscape to unearth key prospects and challenges of the downstream energy sector. It comprehensively considered both the petroleum and the electricity subsectors. It is a qualitative study based on literature review of earlier research, policy briefs, laws and regulations of the sector. The legal framework and the policy landscape is prospective with foresight on key leverage to ensure the maximization of Ghana’s natural resources by Ghanaians. It has the potential of influencing local economic development, ensuring equitable wealth distribution, protecting indigenous Ghanaian businesses, and fostering socio-economic development within downstream energy subject to effective policies and political commitment. The current local content ecosystem is faced with challenges ranging from political, economic, social, technological, administrative and legal bottlenecks. The paper seeks to contribute to efficient and effective implementation of local content laws and policies by making some recommendations to guide policymakers in policy making towards the creation of enabling environment to mitigate any incident of resource curse associated we several resource endowed countries.