Utilising Ghana’s Natural Gas Resources: Implications for Industrial Development and Inclusive Growth

In Ghana, the natural gas discovery raised hopes for cheaper and cleaner fuel for power generation and industrial development. Subsequently, the country made efforts to optimise the gas resources through policy and infrastructure development. After a decade of oil and gas production, the evolution of policies and actions can be examined through the lenses of efficiency and politics and how policies and actions activated benefits or cost to the country. The results indicate that policies and actions that get implemented are those engineered on the spur of the moment, undermining prior established policies and laws in the gas sector. Consequently, appropriate actions get delayed with attendant financial liabilities to the state. What is perhaps worrying is that past mistakes do not provide needed lessons for subsequent decisions in the gas sector. The situation has had a severe effect on other economic sectors, particularly the power sector, rendering it almost unsustainable. Despite the challenges, the role of gas in the economy remains important, demanding a retooling of the governance architecture to provide stable and predictable market environments for the sector. This will promote a more competitive market, particularly on pricing, to encourage industrial consumption of gas. A strategic pathway is for new transparent policy reforms that must crystallise into a Natural Gas Act to provide a robust and accountable regime for the sector.