Youth and Oil & Gas Governance in Ghana - Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung ...

Chapter 1Chapter 1IntroductionGhana joined the league of oil producing countries with thediscovery of oil in commercial quantities off its Western Coast inJune, 2007. Feverish preparations were made for oil production tocommence which included the building of the Floating Productionand Storage (FPSO) which was completed in record time for thefirst pouring of oil in December, 2010.The announcement of the oil discovery generated a huge publicdebate: How much money will accrue from the oil production?How will government manage the revenue? What should the revenuefrom the hydrocarbon resources be used for? Will Ghana beable to avoid the so called ‘resource curse’ as with other resourcerichcountries?Consequently, several consultations were done prior to the productionof oil. Some of these included regional consultations onthe management of the petroleum revenue, development of alocal content and participation policy, petroleum revenue managementbill which was subsequently passed into a law, the petroleumexploration and production bill (which was withdrawn forfurther work) among others. Unfortunately, there was very littleparticipation of the youth in these processes.Ghana has a relatively youthful population. As the National YouthPolicy defines youth, it is the period between childhood and adulthood.“During this period a person prepares himself/herself to bean active and fully responsible member of the society. It is also aperiod of transformation from family dependent childhood to in-23