The need to develop and boost the potentials of Ghana’s upstream oil and gas activities has been advocated by policymakers, academics, and financial institutions since the discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantities. It has been argued that if well implemented, upstream activities have a trickledown effect on the local content policy linkages that apart from taxes, can lead to improved financial and social benefits. In this study, how Ghana can use local content policy in upstream oil and gas operations to maximum economic and social benefits for the good of the Ghana government, citizens, and the Multinational Oil Companies, is the main question to be answered? To address this question, comprehensive analysis of local content laws and policies and stakeholder consultations are conducted. The paper argues that an effective local content policy towards achieving sustainability in the upstream oil and gas industry demands balancing the needs of policymakers, local communities, Multinational Oil Companies, and regulators to succeed. The study recommends a local content implementation master plan; active participation of key stakeholders (government, citizens and Multinational Oil Companies); and integration of forward and backward linkages in the implementation of Ghana’s upstream local content laws and policies.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of the programmes being implemented with a view to ascertaining if they adequately address the energy needs of the poor more holistically and sustainably. Design/methodology/approach The content of this desktop review is based on information collected through a review of available energy policy documents from the Ghana Government and related governmental agencies, such as the Energy Commission and Ghana Statistical Services, international energy-related agencies, such as the International Energy Agency (World Vision, 2013), as well as other related web searches. Additionally, global and Sub-Saharan African energy access documents were reviewed by analysing secondary data from the World Bank and UN policy reports, statistical data, strategies, regulations, protocols and other related documents (World Vision, 2013). Furthermore, some policy documents on energy access and usage were explored mainly from Senegal and Ghana to ascertain governments’ policies, regulations and strategies in the implementation of energy access policies. Findings The paper offers all the various strategies being implemented in an attempt to establish a foothold on the problem of affording the poor with clean and affordable energies. The paper also presents the rich experiences of Senegal in its bid to see expanded access in liquefied petroleum gas usage by residential consumers. Originality/value The paper provides some policy and theoretical implications for improving Ghana’s energy access.

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The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of crude oil production on macroeconomic performance in Ghana. The study employed monthly data from January 2011 to December 2018. The structural vector autoregressive model was employed to analyse the impact of crude oil production on macroeconomic performance. The findings of the structural impulse response function revealed that crude oil production had no impact on the agricultural sector, services sector, exchange rate and inflation. However, crude oil production had a negative and positive impact on the manufacturing sector and fiscal balance, respectively. The findings imply that the government through Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and other major oil stakeholders should establish oil refineries, petroleum industries and fertiliser plants domestically to provide a forward linkage for the non-oil sectors. Also, the government through the Ministry of Trade and Industry should develop the services sectors to meet international standards to provide a backward linkage to the oil sector and ensure the integration of the sectors into the oil industry. The government needs to intensify measures to make the manufacturing sector recover from the adverse effect of the production of crude oil.

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