Mrs Mona Quartey, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, has said the mining and oil and gas sectors have made significant contributions to the economy of Ghana.

She said: “total revenues that accrued to government from the mining sector was GH?1,146,202,977 in 2012, GH?1,104,047,314 in 2013 and GH?1,192,692,542 in 2014.

“Total volume of crude oil produced from the jubilee field in 2015 was 37,411,661 barrels, a marginal increase over the 2014 production levels,” she said.

Mrs Quartey said this in a speech read for her at the launch of the 2014 mining, and oil and gas Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) audit reports in Accra.

She said the sector has, however, been affected by the declining price of crude oil on the world market, which had seen prices fall from 110 dollars per barrel in June 2014 to 40 dollars per barrel, with implications for both importers and exporters.

Mrs Quartey said in the light of the declining prices, government was working to ensure that revenues from extractive resources were prudently managed and used for the benefit of the people, especially those immediately, and negatively impacted by the activities of companies in the sector.

She said the recommendations from previous EITI Reports had informed a wide range of reforms in the mining as well as oil and gas sectors such as the review of the fiscal regime under which mining industry operates and development of guidelines for the use of mineral royalties at the sub-national level.

She noted that effect implementation of the EITI will ensure that less money is lost to corruption, as people can access the information needed to hold governments and companies to account

“Transparency will help to demystify the oil industry. Oil and gas companies must be open about their contributions or payments. This is key to managing expectations and building trust with government, civil society and communities,” she said.

Mrs Quartey said government will support the Ghana EITI process to provide regular information on all material revenues received by government from the extractive sector (mining and oil/gas).

She commended GHEITI for the good job done and urged them to also focus on the gas sector in the subsequent years since the focus so far had been on the oil sector, especially with Ghana’s plans to boost gas production.

Mrs Hanna Owusu Koranteng, a representative of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) constituency of GHEITI, said despite the achievements of the EITI process in Ghana, there were still governance problems associated with the industry which manifest in environmental, social and economic challenges.

“Looking ahead, our efforts should aim at improving governance in the extractive sector by incorporating Free Prior Informed Consent clauses into Ghana’s mining, oil and gas laws” she said, adding that it would protect frontline communities from violations they suffer as a result of extractive activities.