Natural Resource Accounting, a blessing to overcome resource curse – Dr. Kokofu

Natural resource accounting is the blessing needed to overcome resource curse, Dr. Henry Kwabena Kokofu, former Executive Director, Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) says.

Resource curse is the ironic case of resource rich nations wallowing in want, poverty and conflict.

The former director of the environmental regulatory body made the proposal in an exclusive interview with the Ghana News Agency.

Natural Resource Accounting (NRA) is a system of accounting that integrates the value of a nation’s natural resources and environmental degradation into its national economic accounts.

He said that for many years, Ghana had failed to properly quantify its natural capital.

“We must know what we have, the quantity, and the cost,” he stated.

He emphasised the need for a comprehensive natural capital account while lamenting that developed nations factor the value of their natural assets into their national accounts.

Dr. Kokofu noted that state institutions such as the Ghana’s Statistical Services and the Georgical Survey Authority had not yet fully embraced this practice of accounting for the country’s natural resource potential. 

This lack of data, he explained, made it difficult to ensure equitable distribution of wealth and to hold those in charge of resource governance accountable.

Dr. Kokofu also touched on the historical shortcomings of resource governance in Ghana, citing the timber industry.

He noted how the country’s rush to export logs in the past led to the depletion of its forests, a move that the nation is now paying a huge cost to rectify through man-made forests.

This, he said, demonstrates the short-sightedness that could result from a failure to account for the long-term environmental costs of resource exploitation.

The former EPA head also advocated for a system that empowered Ghanaians to be at the forefront of the extractive industry from mining to the drafting of agreements to ensure that the benefits of the nation’s mineral wealth were maximized for its citizens.

Source: GNA

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