1.0 INTRODUCTION

Africa has vast petroleum resources which when utilized efficiently, can accelerate economic growth and development. Translating natural resource wealth into sustainable development depends to a large extent on good governance. Good governance calls for utmost attention in Africa as the region’s oil industry is bedeviled by several governance challenges. According to the African Progress Report 2013, harnessing the natural resource potential of Africa will largely depend on the ability of African Governments to strengthen fiscal policy formulation, equitable public spending in infrastructure and adhering to transparency and accountability in the management of resources. The Africa Oil Governance Report (AOGR), a flagship publication by the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), therefore presents the governance efforts of the eighteen member countries of the African Petroleum Producers Association (APPA) in their management of extractive resources. It also identifies the gaps in their governance structures, and how these gaps can be addressed through policy, legal and institutional interventions; therefore serving as a wake-up call to African governments to strengthen their resource governance policies, systems and institutions. In this, it provides stakeholders with relevant governance information on oil producing African countries to influence policy decisions along the oil extraction value chain.