Accra: The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has urged the government to stop renewing expiring mining leases and instead adopt a new mining policy anchored in state ownership of mineral resources, with private firms engaged strictly through service contracts.
According to Ghana Web, Ghana's former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, stated the institute's position at a press briefing in Accra, arguing that the country's impending wave of expiring mining leases presents a rare opportunity to restructure the sector without breaching existing contractual obligations.
She stressed that the nation must abandon its long-standing royalty-based mining framework, which she describes as a colonial-era model that delivers only marginal returns despite Ghana's vast mineral endowment. In its place, she proposes a system where the state retains full ownership of mineral resources while contracting local and foreign firms for technical and operational services.
The intervention comes amid growing concern within the institute over proposals from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to maintain and expand a sliding-scale royalty regime. IEA noted that the draft Minerals and Mining (Royalty) Regulations, 2025, currently before parliament, preserve the existing royalty structure. The proposed regulations suggest royalty rates of 5 to 12 percent for gold and lithium, while minerals such as bauxite, manganese, salt, limestone, and iron ore attract royalties of about 5 percent.
Akuffo expressed the institute's concern over the ministry's position, particularly reports of a draft bill considering a 9 to 12 percent sliding-scale royalty regime across the mining sector. This approach contrasts with President John Mahama's public statements calling for greater sovereignty over the country's natural resources. The institute recalled the president's agreement to review extractive industry agreements from the 'Guggisberg era' and his emphasis on increased indigenous participation and higher national returns from mineral exploitation.
While the president has signalled a commitment to reform, IEA criticized the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, for promoting an outdated, colonial royalty-based paradigm. 'The president is ahead of his ministers,' Akuffo said, adding that the ministry's stance reflects a broader national dilemma trapped in an old mindset prioritizing royalties over ownership and long-term value creation.
Furthermore, IEA argued that national ownership and effective management of the country's mineral resources will generate financial, economic, and security dividends beyond any current royalty percentage. Ownership, the institute said, will enable value addition, boost foreign exchange inflows, support industrialization, and create secondary benefits such as jobs, technology transfer, and community development.
The institute grounded its position in constitutional and international law, noting that the nation's natural resources are sovereign assets held in trust for the people under the 1992 Constitution. It also cited international instruments affirming permanent sovereignty over natural resources, insisting that no foreign entity should derive greater benefit from Ghana's minerals than the nation itself.
Rejecting arguments that the nation lacks capacity to manage its resources, Akuffo highlighted Ghana's deep pool of experienced mining professionals, many of whom already manage large-scale operations. She pointed to Ghanaian-owned firms like Engineers and Planners, Rocksure International, and BCM Ghana Limited, actively involved in mining activities across the country. She added that technology is not exclusive to foreign firms and can be acquired through various means.
IEA criticized the current royalty regime as inequitable and short-sighted, capturing only a fraction of national mineral wealth's true value. By comparison, the institute cited countries securing dominant shares of resource rents for their citizens through stronger fiscal and ownership frameworks, such as Norway and Australia.
Despite its vast mineral wealth, Ghana has sought assistance from the International Monetary Fund 17 times, a situation IEA described as unacceptable and indicative of deep structural flaws in the country's resource governance model.