Ghana’s oil revenue oversight body has raised fresh accountability concerns after its 2025 annual report revealed that district assemblies received a fraction of their legally mandated share of petroleum earnings, even as the government directed hundreds of millions of dollars into its flagship infrastructure programme.
The Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) Chairman Richard Ellimah disclosed at the launch of the committee’s 29th statutory report in Accra on Wednesday, April 8, that US$434.55 million in Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) receipts had been transferred to a special purpose vehicle under the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund (GIIF) for the government’s “Big Push” infrastructure agenda.
The transfer follows a government decision to channel 95 percent of the ABFA into the Big Push programme, which is centred on large-scale infrastructure development, including the Kumasi-Accra Expressway as its flagship project. The funds are currently held at the Bank of Ghana pending the completion of feasibility studies on the projects.
However, the same report flagged a significant legal compliance gap. PIAC found that only 0.43 percent of the ABFA was disbursed to the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), far below the 5 percent threshold required under law. The committee recommended that the government establish a clear legal basis within the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) for transferring ABFA funds intended for the Big Push to the GIIF, in order to regularise the arrangement.
The report also raised alarm over a separate accountability deficit. PIAC found that Explorco, a subsidiary of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), had failed to account for US$561,648,786 in petroleum revenue owed to the Republic of Ghana between 2022 and 2024, despite repeated calls by the committee for the funds to be deposited into the Petroleum Fund.
The findings come against a backdrop of sharply declining oil output. Total petroleum receipts for 2025 fell to US$770.27 million, a 43.27 percent decrease from the US$1.36 billion recorded in 2024, with crude production declining for a sixth consecutive year, from 71.44 million barrels in 2019 to 37.3 million barrels in 2025.
Ellimah called on the government to deepen collaboration with the Petroleum Commission to attract fresh investment into the sector and reverse the production decline, urging operators to commit to targeted investment plans in priority fields.
Since Ghana began producing oil in 2011, cumulative petroleum revenues have reached US$11.97 billion, underscoring the sector’s continued centrality to national finances even as structural pressures mount.
PIAC also recommended that government provide additional funding to complete the Agenda 111 hospital construction projects, which previously drew from ABFA allocations but will no longer do so under the amended PRMA.
