There is a need for proper management of oil revenues as the East African region prepares to join the world’s oil and gas producers.“We want the black gold underground to facilitate the green gold above the ground. Agriculture and tourism are all renewable resources vital to our economy. They need good financing for sustainability,” Maria Kiwanuka, Uganda’s finance minister said while opening a regional oil and gas forum in Kampala last week. The minister stressed that oil revenues should be used to boost the sustainability of other productive sectors.This was echoed by key speakers at the forum that attracted participants from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the US. Several government representatives from the region also said their governments were seeking to develop their infrastructure using the anticipated oil revenues.Micah Cheserem, the chairman of the Kenya Commission on Revenue Collection, revealed that Kenya would build a modern railway to accommodate express trains. He said by improving the country’s infrastructure, the government was also seeking to boost returns from the oil sector as it would lower the cost of production.Mary Jervase Yak, South Sudan finance and economic planning deputy minister, said her government would use the oil money to develop much-needed infrastructure across the country.However, some speakers expressed concern at East African governments’ capacity to manage the oil money transparently.“How sure are we that the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank will manage the oil funds well?” questioned Ezra Suruma, Uganda’s former finance minister. “In the past, big sums of money have been misused by these same organisations,” Suruma, who is also a presidential advisor on finance and economic planning, added.Lawrence Bategeka, an acting research fellow at the Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC), voiced similar concerns. “The only way such revenues can be managed is through proper allocation to benefit different sectors”, he said.The forum, held at the Kampala Serena Hotel under the theme, “Oil and Gas Management for Inclusive and Sustainable Development”, was hosted by EPRC, the Africa Growth Initiative at BROOKINGS, the African Capacity Building Foundation, the Think Tank Initiative and the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA). Agencies
