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Introduction
The efforts of the Government of Ghana from 2000 to 2006, through oil exploration under the auspices of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), yielded dividends with the major discovery of oil in 2007 by a US based oil company, Kosmos energy. The discovery is 75 miles offshore of Ghana, named the Jubilee field. Ghana's discovery is said to be one of the largest offshore find on the continent and estimated to hold about 1.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil, and 800 billion cubic feet of natural gas ([22] Kapela, 2009). The first commercial production from the Jubilee field began in December (2010). Furthermore, there had been another discovery by Tullow oil plc, a UK based company, with many more discoveries envisaged.
The status of Ghana is expected to change from an oil importer to exporter and be named among the league of oil exporting nations and perhaps a member of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The expected revenue to be generated by government from the oil would potentially strengthened Ghana's development initiatives and the "petro-dollars" will be essential in fueling the engine of growth and the desired development yeaned for by Ghanaians. But on the contrary, this seemingly and rather simplistic assumption may not be valid since the path to development has eluded many other countries endowed with natural resource, including oil and gas exports, in the past. Empirical evidence shows that natural resource abundant countries in Africa have not done that well in terms of economic and human development indicators ([28] Palley, 2003). Nigeria's economy has been in doldrums with increasing poverty among its population inspite of the huge inflow of oil revenues ([17] Human Rights Watch, 2005). Gabon' economy has stagnated with the presence of oil revenue, while Angola ranks 166 out of a total of 177 in the United Nations Human Development Index ([16] Human Development Report, 2004). The notion of a negative relationship between natural resource and socio-politico economic development does not sit well with many; that instead of being a blessing, oil exports can become a curse for some countries endowed with oil. [23] Karl (1997) described these as "paradox of plenty". Paradox of plenty depicts the situation where a country benefits less from more resource...