Another Step Forward for Ghana

Issue Date April 2009
Volume 20
Issue 2
Page Numbers 138-152
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On 7 January 2009, President John Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) handed over power to John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), marking Ghana’s second peaceful transition of power from incumbent party to opposition and providing the country with yet another opportunity to deepen its democratic processes and institutions. Meaningful reforms must aim at building institutions and structures that will reduce the incentives for state capture and partisan abuse. In particular, these should include reform of the excessively powerful executive; development of an oil-sector regulatory and governance framework that provides for maximum transparency, accountability, and equity in the use of the new oil-generated revenues; and tax reforms to expand the revenue base and improve compliance.