The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has examined the 2018 Budget and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana and presents our analyses below. The analyses focus on interrogating government’s programme and general governance in the energy sector for the 2018 fiscal year and projections for 2019.

The 2017 ABFA Balance

The ABFA had an unspent balance of GHS403.7 million which was not reported in the 2017 reconciliation reports of petroleum fund. After several push for disclosure of the whereabout of the funds, the Ministry of Finance responded to the Ghanaian Times publication of 8th October 2018 that the “amount of GH¢403.7 million was transferred into the Treasury Main Account in 2017” in line with Section 46 of the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA), 2016 (Act 921), which requiresthat all government balances should be part of TSA. In the 2018 Petroleum Report, the Dollar equivalent of the amount has been refunded into the ABFA, which translates to GHS 440.8 million.

ACEP commends the Ministry for heeding to calls to refund the money. However, the amount remains unutilised in spite of the development challenges the country faces