Ghana is amending its Petroleum Revenue Management Act, removing guaranteed oil revenue allocations for oversight bodies and programmes including the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), infrastructure projects, and Free Senior High School (Free SHS).
The government is revising the Petroleum Revenue Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1138), fundamentally altering how the country allocates its oil wealth. For over a decade, the original PRMA, passed in 2011, was considered a model for transparent oil revenue management, ring-fencing petroleum money for national priorities through the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA).
Under the new amendment, ABFA is now described as part of the national budget, subject to the same political discretion that guides other government funds. The amendment repeals the section listing specific areas and bodies entitled to ABFA allocations, giving the Finance Ministry more flexibility over how oil revenues are spent annually.
PIAC, the independent committee established to monitor Ghana’s oil money usage, faces significant impact. Before 2015, PIAC received only about one third of its approved budget from the Ministry of Finance. The 2015 amendment (Act 893) secured direct ABFA funding, improving budget releases to an average of 85.5 percent between 2016 and 2024.
“Without guaranteed ABFA support, PIAC risks returning to the days when its independence was more theoretical than practical,” analysts warn.
The Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF), which finances large-scale projects including the Agenda 111 hospital initiative and Kotoka International Airport Terminal 3, also loses direct ABFA access. This could disrupt infrastructure financing in a country already facing significant infrastructure gaps.
The Free SHS policy, which has benefited millions of students, loses its oil revenue backing. While the government maintains the programme will continue, it must now compete for funding within the broader national budget, potentially making education vulnerable to shifting political priorities.
The changes come as Ghana’s oil sector struggles. Crude oil production has declined significantly since its peak, and no new petroleum agreements have been signed since 2018, according to PIAC reports. Declining production has reduced oil revenues, shrinking the pool of petroleum money just as spending rules are being loosened.
The amendment may give the Finance Ministry more budgeting flexibility, but critics argue it threatens transparency, predictability, and long-term development planning that the original PRMA was designed to protect.
