The Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, has disclosed that Ghana nearly lost an amount of $9 billion to arbitration claims against the government over the past four years.
According to him, this amount could have collapsed the country’s economy, but the claims were ultimately dismissed in favour of Ghana.
“Over the past four years, the value of arbitral cases against the Republic has been in excess of $9 billion, and I will cite a few examples to illustrate the point. One such case was the financial claim by ENI Viton against Ghana, which was initially $7 billion and subsequently reduced to $915 million after Ghana successfully challenged the proceedings in court. In fact, any of these amounts could have collapsed the Ghanaian economy,” he said.
The Attorney General said these at the Public Sector Lawyers Conference in Accra on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.
He said that the various claims against the country had been dismissed, adding, “By the grace of God, these financial claims have been dismissed, and they were entitled by the International Arbitral Tribunal.”
Some arbitration cases against the country over the years include; The Ghana vs. International Finance Corporation (IFC) case (2020) when Ghana was involved in arbitration over a dispute with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which had invested in Ghana’s energy sector.
In 2019, there was a case between Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Aker Energy, in that case, there was a dispute between the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Aker Energy, a Norwegian oil company, over an exploration agreement in the deep-water offshore oil fields.
Also in 2018, Kosmos Energy and the Government of Ghana had a dispute, it was about interpretation and application of certain tax provisions in a contract for offshore oil exploration.
The Attorney General, therefore called for reformation of Ghana’s arbitration laws, saying “We must reform the laws governing arbitration and civil claims against the state, while taking a critical look at contracting and contract management on behalf of the state”.
