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Oil Cash For Akufo-Addo Gov't In 3years More Than Mills-Mahama 8years Combined — Seth Terkper

By Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri
Business & Finance Oil Cash For Akufo-Addo Gov't In 3years More Than Mills-Mahama 8years Combined — Seth Terkper
NOV 25, 2020 LISTEN

Former Finance Minister under the previous Mahama administration Seth Terkper said the biggest legacy they left behind for the Akufo-Addo government is petroleum revenues.

He noted that oil revenues flowing to the Akufo-Addo government purse in the last three years, [from 2017 to 2020] far exceeds the eight years of the late Prof Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama administrations combined.

According to him, data from petroleum reports shows that total petroleum revenue flow from Jubilee Field to the late Prof. Evans Atta Mills government in four years was US$50,5476,000.

Mr Terkper added that the Mahama's administration of which he was the Finance Minister received total petroleum revenue of US$115,025,000 from the Jubilee Field [2012 to 2016].

He noted that the Akufo-Addo administration has so far received US$214,249,000 from 2017 to 2020 which is far higher than Mills and Mahama administration put together in simple mathematical terms.

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Speaking to some Business and Financial journalist in Accra, the former Finance Minister explained that the massive flow of petroleum revenue to the Akufo-Addo government is occasioned by the additional inflows or receipt from Sankofa and TEN fields which his government is enjoying exclusively.

The two fields which came as a result of the investments the previous Mahama administration made before handing over power, Mr Terkper noted, has enriched the Akufo-Addo administration than any past government in the political history of Ghana.

Meanwhile, he said despite the high inflows of oil cash, this same Akufo-Addo government has strangely borrowed more than Mills and Mahama administrations to an alarming public debt stock of GHC273.8 billion or US$48.0 billion.

"So from 2011 when we started getting revenue from oil, you can see that only Jubilee flowed to all the administrations but Sankofa and TEN fields flowed exclusively to only Akufo-Adoo government. So that alone should tell you what kind of legacy was left.

"From 2011, the revenue for eight years for Mill-Mahama administrations combined is lower than revenue in the last three years. So the basis on which they said Mahama administration left a terrible and bad economy is now visible for everyone to see. We did well by building buffers with one oil field than the current administration did with three oil fields," he stressed.

No oil revenue into Ghana Infrastructure Fund since 2017

According to him, since 2017 not a single oil revenue has slipped into the Ghana Infrastructure Fund under the current Akufo-Addo administration.

He said the Mahama administration created the Ghana Infrastructure Fund with a seed capital of U$S250million to respond to infrastructure needs of Ghanaians over concerns that the oil money cannot be felt.

Mr Terkper indicated that the Mahama administration allocated more money into the statutory funds than Akufo-Addo administration.

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He added that petroleum revenue distribution to the Petroleum Holding Fund (PHF) under the Mills-Mahama administration combined from only Jubilee Field is higher than the Akufo-Addo administration with three oil fields.

Mr Terkper noted that the Mills-Mahama administration combined allocated US$3.42million to the PHF against US$2.45million under the Akufo-Addo administration.

Mahama suffered worst oil price drop than Akufo-Addo in Covid-19

He stresses that with oil revenue from one stream, crude oil prices witnessed the worst performance under the Mahama administration between 2015/16 compared to Akufo-Addo in covid-19 times.

According to him, crude oil prices dropped from US$99 per barrel in 2014 to US$52 in 2015 and further to US$43 in 2016.

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"The worst crude oil performance was in 2016 and this ended in 2019. It went down below US$30 somewhere in March during covid-19 which has nothing to do with covid-19 but the fight between Saudi Arabia and Russia. With 190,000 barrels of crude oil per day under this government and we were not getting 70,000 barrels because of the turret bearing issues. So I can say confidently that oil revenue, production and output clearly shows we probably have used the oil revenues better. There is no reason whatsoever on the basis of oil alone to say that the legacies we left was a terrible one.

"A terrible one from oil perspective would have been if we had no turret bearing issues and with Sankofa and TEN coming up but that wasn't the case. This was why we said in 2016 that the prospect for the economy was better with prices starting to go up in 2017 with TEN and Sankofa coming up. Oil pipelines laid with Atuabo in place and all that, the only outstanding issue was the reverse flow but it still showed that the opportunities were there," Mr Terkper emphasised.

Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri
Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri

Editor

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