Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) says Ghanaians must take greater ownership of the country’s mining industry if the sector is to deliver lasting economic benefits.
This was said by the Chief Executive Officer of GoldBod, Sammy Gyamfi, during a national mining dialogue in Accra, where he called for deliberate policies to increase indigenous participation across the mining value chain.
According to him, Ghana’s mining agenda must go beyond increasing gold production to ensuring that Ghanaians have meaningful interests in exploration, mine development, mining services, refining and downstream industries.
“We must promote more indigenous ownership of mines. We must support Ghanaian capital to participate meaningfully in exploration, mine development, mining services and value addition,” he said.
Mr. Gyamfi said Ghana’s long history of gold production had not translated into sufficient local ownership or broad-based economic transformation, particularly in mining communities.
He argued that simply producing more gold would not be enough if much of the value generated from the sector continued to leave the country.
“Production without ownership is limited. Production without value addition is leakage. Production without community transformation is a broken social contract.”
The GoldBod CEO said the large-scale mining sector remained largely foreign-led, with significant value lost through ownership structures, financing arrangements, imported inputs, offshore services and weak local industrial linkages.
“The large-scale mining sector has been largely foreign-led, and too much of the value has leaked out of the country through ownership structures, financing arrangements, imported inputs, offshore services, limited beneficiation and weak local industrial linkages,” he stated.
Using Obuasi as an example, Mr. Gyamfi said resource extraction alone could not guarantee sustainable development unless mining revenues were linked to local investment, infrastructure and industrial growth.
“If we want a new story, we must own more, refine more, process more, fabricate more and retain more,” he stressed.
He also proposed an “Involve, Protect, Expand” model under which mining communities would be treated as “development partners and economic shareholders”.
The model, he said, should create opportunities for local businesses and residents in areas including transport, catering, security, maintenance, environmental monitoring and reclamation.
Mr. Gyamfi further called for stronger environmental protection, the formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining, tougher enforcement against illegal mining and greater investment in local refining and jewellery manufacturing.
