The main purpose of this study is to examine the nexus between energy consumption disaggregated into Petroleum and Electricity Consumption and Economic Growth in Ghana in a cointegrated VAR framework. The Johansen test of cointegration indicates that there is no long run relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth. On the other hand, the Johansen test of cointegration indicates that there is a positive long run relationship between petroleum consumption and economic growth. Since there was no existence of long run relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth, the variables were first differenced, and the causality test conducted in a VAR framework. The results of the Granger causality based on the VAR revealed that there is a unidirectional causality from economic growth to electricity consumption in Ghana. The granger causality based on the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) revealed that there is a unidirectional causality running from petroleum consumption to economic growth in both the short and long run. The impulse response function shows that economic growth responds positively to shocks in petroleum consumption whiles electricity consumption responds positively to a shock in economic growth. It is recommended that appropriate electricity conservation measures should be developed and intensified since this will not retard growth in the economy. Also, petroleum consumption seems to be an important principal factor in short run as well as in the long run for the Ghanaian economy, policies should therefore be targeted at making constant and available petroleum products so that the Ghanaian economy can grow positively.

The study investigated the dynamic relationship between oil prices and Real GDP growth in Nigeria over time by making use of time varying Bayesian VAR with Stochastic volatility. I distinguished between supply and demand shocks by means of a sign restriction. First, the study found that, the response of the Nigerian economy has been varying overtime. Also, GDP growth responds positively to both supply and demand shocks. However, the magnitude of the response to demand shock is larger compared to that of supply shocks. This suggests that overtime an increase in oil prices due to shocks in demand matter most for the Nigerian economy.

The recent slump in crude oil prices in global markets has taken a serious toll on oil producing countries. Producers in Africa are not left out as evidenced in slower growth, rising fiscal deficit, debt problems and deteriorating current account balance. Economic diversification is viewed as means of avoiding the resource curse problems by fostering long term economic growth. This study therefore reviews the trends and dynamics in economic diversification in oil producing countries. The study argues that the resource curse can only be avoided when the revenues generated from the exploitation of oil are invested in other productive sectors of the economy thereby decoupling economic growth from the extractive sector. The study revealed that the economies of these countries are still reliant on the petroleum sector despite numerous efforts and strategies aimed diversification. The agricultural and manufacturing sectors continues to perform poorly due to bottlenecks such as unfriendly business environment, governance challenges and inadequate supply of power inherent in these countries .The study therefore recommends policies aimed at removing these barriers to serve as catalyst for the diversification agenda.