Opinions of Ghanaians on the management of petroleum revenue in Ghana

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scholars of natural resource governance argue that national and local governments must engage ordinary community members. When ordinary community members access information about the utilization of natural resource revenue and get an opportunity to provide feedback, the revenue management improves. In this article, the authors engaged Ghanaians through a spatial crowdsourcing platform for their opinion about petroleum management revenue in Ghana. The participants accessed the platform via their mobile phones and completed a survey on their opinions about petroleum revenue management, the Free Senior High School program, and their priority areas for petroleum revenue funding in Ghana. The results suggest that ordinary community members, and particularly women, seemed less informed about the management of petroleum revenue in Ghana. Furthermore, Ghanaians’ opinions regarding their prioritized projects for petroleum revenue funding vary geographically. The authors conclude that decision-makers can use spatial crowdsourcing to engage ordinary community members in natural resource revenue management.