He said the West African country’s concept of establishing the stabilization and the heritage funds is in a right direction which ought to be lauded. Mr Scurfield, however, expressed discomfort that Ghana has no robust fiscal regime to achieve desirable benefits in the petroleum and the extractive sector.

He told journalists attending a 14-day regional training course on oil, gas and mining in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania that African leaders ought to cut drastic spending to reduce the debt crisis, which is a leading cause of economic turmoil in Africa.

Being attended by about 24 reporters – eight each from Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda, the course is organized by the Journalists Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET) in collaboration with Penplusbytes, an International ICT Journalism in Ghana and the African Center of Media Excellence in Uganda.

He said enough and judicious utilization of revenue from the extractive sector would spur socio-economic growth and development on the continent.  Mr Scurfield said countries like Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda had abundant natural resources and there is the need for these countries to do comparative analysis and check the weaknesses and strength of various fiscal regimes before these resources are tapped.

He said according to the reports from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), developing countries lose 100 to 300 million dollars of tax revenue through tax avoidance. Tax avoidance, he explained, remains one of the biggest economic challenges for developing countries saying inefficient taxation of extractive activities and the inability to fight abuses of transfer pricing by multinational enterprises also remains a significant cause of tax base erosion.

Mr Scurfield asked the participants to go back to their countries and do in-depth investigations to ensure that revenues from the extractive sectors are utilized judiciously to facilitate accelerated national development.