The Guyana-Ghana Connection

In 2019, Ghana successfully encouraged Africans around the world to come to the country through a campaign entitled “Year of Return.” The premise was that 400 years after Africans were captured and displaced, we would return to the continent to celebrate culture and examine our history pre-slave trade. The campaign was a success and the camaraderie unforgettable. From the moment I stepped off the plane in Accra, I actually began to wonder if I might have Ghanaian ancestry. The sights, sounds, and smells reminded me of disembarking at Cheddi Jagan airport in Guyana when I was a child. What I didn’t know when I arrived in Accra is that Ghana and Guyana have a political and cultural history that spans over 40 years.

During a virtual press last Friday, Guyana’s President Ali shared that Ghana will lend technical support to Guyana in the areas of the sovereign wealth fund (SWF) or oil money legislation, as well as the highly-anticipated gas-to-energy development, and local content. “Local content requirements (LCRs) are policies imposed by governments that require firms to use domestically-manufactured goods or domestically-supplied services in order to operate in an economy” (OECD).

Cordial discussions between the two leaders at the 76th United Nations General Assembly in Mexico in September led to President Ali seeking the help of President Nana Akufo-Addo to draft measures for a local content bill as Ghana has experience legislating upstream oil exploration and refinement. After Ghana discovered oil and gas in 2007, the government created policies to avoid having an abundance of non-renewable natural resources but no economic growth and enacted the Petroleum Revenue Management Act in 2011, a committee to ensure accountability and transparency in the management and use of oil and gas revenue.

Since assuming office in August 2020 after a controversial election, the Ali-led government also promised transparency and that Guyana’s oil wealth will be directly injected into improving the lives of all Guyanese, as well as to boost critical non-oil sectors such as education, agriculture and health. The Local Content bill will go a long way to achieve this.

The two countries actually go way back.

In fact, when Ghana gained its independence from Britain on March 6, 1957 under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, Former President Forbes Burnham and then Premier Cheddi Jagan were invited to join in the independence celebrations in Ghana. Since 2010, Guyana has celebrated “Ghana Day” with annual pageants and parades to commemorate the connection. Guyana also joined the Non-Aligned Movement with Ghana in 1970 and officially established diplomatic relations with Ghana on May 14, 1979.

Hmm, only a few months before I was born. Coincidence?