Ghana and eight other African countries will benefit from the potential source of new investments for future projects in the oil and gas sector.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Africa Outlook 2023 Report titled “the challenges ahead”, the decision by European countries to replace Russian oil and gas with alternative supplies will provide a short-to medium-term boost to demand for African energy suppliers.

“In the energy sector, the decision by European countries to replace Russian oil and gas with alternative supplies will provide a short- to medium-term boost to demand for African energy suppliers and a potential source of new investment for future projects in countries such as Nigeria, Angola, Gabon, Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Congo-Brazzaville, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea and Chad.

“Similarly, African mining ventures—especially those in Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe—could receive more attention should Western-based mining companies and commodity traders increasingly shun Russian supplies of copper, cobalt, diamonds, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, platinum, palladium, tungsten, uranium, vanadium and zinc, among other products”.

The report furthered that many foreign oil and gas investors are seeking to explore opportunities in resource rich oil countries in Africa.

Again, the EIU said less resource-intensive and more diversified trading economies will continue to be among the region’s fastest-growing economies including Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire and Mauritius.

Meanwhile African exporters will face a more challenging external business environment in 2023, although the outlook is far from gloomy.

According to EIU, major export operations are highly exposed to the fortunes of the European Union, the USA and China and some businesses will face much softer demand in these markets in the year ahead.

“We expect the EU (and the UK) to slip into recession in 2023, and US economic growth will slow sharply as high inflation and monetary policy tightening take their toll on household spending and business investment. The performance of the Chinese economy will be subdued by its own internal pressures, which include lingering effects of the pandemic and trouble in the real estate sector”.