The Financial Times (FT), an international business newspaper has predicted that Ghana�s economy will be best on the African continent if the oil resources of the country are managed prudently.
In a special edition in the middle of December dedicated to Ghana, the paper, which is read around the world daily, expressed the view that Ghana had the potential to become �an emerging black power, rather than an aid-dependent African reformer, collecting World Bank stars�.
The FT is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world.
The paper, in well-researched articles and pictures on Ghana�s economic potential, prospects, as well as dangers, took a detailed look at the nation�s oil gains and how it could propel Ghana to greater socio-economic heights.
It recounted the days of the first President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, as the liberator who also championed �a free, united and industrialising continent, facing the world from a position of strength�.
�When national income was recalculated in 2010 for the first time in 20 years, gross domestic product was raised $500 per capita of $1,300. This propelled the country into the lower middle income� it said.
It recognised that the fast-growing economy of 13.6 per cent was very encouraging and was perhaps about the best on the continent of Africa.
The FT indicated that �the discovery of oil and rapid launch of production at the field operated offshore by Britain�s Tullow Oil has provided a renewed belief in Ghana�s capacity to reach the land that Dr Nkrumah promised�.
The paper was of the view that the quantities of oil discovery so far were not at par with Africa�s biggest producers but observed that with more than two billion barrels of proven reserves, prospective revenues would go a long way towards balancing the budget.
�Oil earnings and savings accrued to a stabilization fund, should also cushion the country against the kind of external shocks that sent the economy reeling in the past, when the cost of oil imports rose and staple exports gold and cocoa fell� it said.
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