The Africa Centre for Energy Policy, ACEP, is calling for active citizen participation in ensuring that the country’s extractive resources are properly managed for the benefit of all.
The Policy Lead for Petroleum and Conventional Energy at the Centre, Kodzo Yaotse, was speaking at a Campus Engagement at the Ho Technical University, and said citizens’ urge for accountability continue to diminish, leaving the fight to only a few.
The engagement was on Strengthening Accountability for Resource Governance through Active Citizenship.
Mr. Yaotse said through such forums, the organization is building a constituency of active citizens, urging students to follow national discourse by getting themselves updated on the issues.
He said there is the need for a critical mass of people who are interested in things happening in the sector to call for accountability.
Mr. Yaotse said the country’s petroleum receipts totaled over Eight billion Dollars from 2011, while the mining sector contributed about 48 percent to exports, and said these are huge monies that can transform the country.
He said citizen’s vigilance is needed to protect public funds such as the Annual Budget Funding Amount, ABFA, warning that, several key sectors for investment including water, health, and transportation would require citizen’s push to be realized.
Mr Yaotse added that so much money has been invested in these sectors yet there is little improvement.
He added that currently, there is a trend where allocations and disbursements from the ABFA has replaced traditional funding sources for most State social interventions, which limits the impact of the utilization of these revenues.