By The Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, revealed that Ghana was close to losing $9 billion due to arbitration claims against the government in the past four years.
He noted that this sum could have severely impacted the country’s economy, but ultimately, the claims were dismissed in favor 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 made these remarks 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 in 2020, where Ghana was involved in arbitration regarding a dispute with the IFC, which had invested in the country’s energy sector.
In 2019, there was a case between the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Aker Energy, which involved a dispute over an exploration agreement in the deep-water offshore oil fields between GNPC and the Norwegian oil company Aker Energy.
In 2018, there was also a dispute between Kosmos Energy and the Government of Ghana regarding the interpretation and application of specific 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”.
