Ghana Stabilisation Fund (GSF), the dedicated oil revenue reserve designed to protect the national budget during economic shocks, has been held at an unlawfully low ceiling for five consecutive years, depriving the country of hundreds of millions of dollars in savings that should legally have been retained, according to the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC).
The fund, which exists specifically to cushion government spending when oil revenues fall short, declined to about US$175 million in 2025 due to withdrawals. PIAC’s 2025 Annual Report states clearly that the government has continued applying a US$100 million cap on the Stabilisation Fund that is inconsistent with the existing legal formula under Regulation 8 of Legislative Instrument 2381, which would have allowed for significantly higher retention.
The committee has raised this same concern in multiple previous reports without resolution. The consequence is measurable. Had the legal cap formula been applied correctly since 2021, the Stabilisation Fund would hold substantially more than its current balance, money that would have been available precisely in 2025, when petroleum receipts collapsed by 43.27 percent in a single year.
PIAC is urging Parliament to ensure that the Ministry of Finance complies with the provisions of LI 2381 to build the GSF to a level that meets its intended purpose of cushioning the economy during downturns.
Parliament has yet to formally respond to this finding. PIAC’s position is that the continued breach is not a technicality, it is a failure to maintain the financial protection mechanisms that Ghana’s petroleum revenue law was specifically designed to provide.
