- ACEP Pushes Rules-Based Framework as Ghana’s Mining Revenues Surge
Ghana’s mining revenues have risen sharply to GH¢24.22 billion, intensifying debate over whether the country’s growing mineral wealth is translating into measurable development outcomes for citizens and communities bearing the environmental and social costs of extraction.
Maybel Acquaye, Policy Lead for Minerals and Mining Policy at the Africa Centre for Energy Policy, says the central policy challenge is shifting from how much government collects to what those revenues ultimately achieve.
Speaking during a technical stakeholder engagement on the development of a rules-based mineral revenue management framework, Ms Acquaye argued that Ghana requires a system capable of tracing mineral revenues from collection and allocation through actual expenditure and development outcomes.
She cited mining receipts rising from about GH¢5.5 billion to GH¢6 billion in 2020 to GH¢24.22 billion in 2025, representing a several-fold expansion within five years. But she cautioned that higher revenue alone should not be treated as evidence that mineral extraction is delivering a correspondingly greater development dividend.
“It’s beyond just the numbers. The key thing is the development impact that the revenues we receive can contribute to,” she said.
That distinction goes to the heart of Ghana’s mineral wealth debate.
Mining generates foreign exchange, fiscal revenue, jobs and broader economic activity, but it also leaves environmental liabilities and social costs, particularly in communities where extraction occurs. A credible revenue-management framework must therefore show whether the benefits being captured and reinvested are sufficient to create lasting assets beyond the life of the minerals themselves.
Ghana’s challenge is complicated by a fragmented fiscal architecture.
Unlike petroleum revenues, mineral-related income is governed through several laws, regulations and payment streams covering corporate income tax, royalties, withholding taxes, dividends, ground rents, fees and other charges. That means understanding the full fiscal contribution of mining can require combining information from different institutions and datasets.
The problem becomes more difficult after the revenue enters the wider public-finance system.
Once receipts are transferred into the Consolidated Fund, Ms Acquaye argues, it can become difficult to determine which public expenditures were financed specifically from mineral revenues and whether the money delivered the development outcomes initially intended.
“You will not be able to tell … the portion of the mineral revenue was used for this,” she said, adding that once money enters the Consolidated Fund, tracing whether it has been used prudently becomes difficult.
ACEP sees Ghana’s petroleum revenue framework as a useful contrast.
Since petroleum revenues began flowing in 2011, reporting under the Petroleum Revenue Management framework has enabled civil society, researchers and oversight institutions to follow receipts, allocations and subsequent expenditure with considerably greater visibility.
Ministry of Finance reconciliation reports and oversight by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee provide a basis for comparing what was budgeted with what was eventually disbursed and implemented.
That distinction between allocation and actual expenditure is crucial.
A budget may announce substantial financing for education, agriculture or infrastructure, but the amount eventually released can be significantly lower. For ACEP, a mineral revenue framework should therefore disclose not only how much money is earmarked for development but what was actually released, spent and achieved.
The challenge becomes particularly important in artisanal and small-scale mining, which has taken on a larger role in Ghana’s gold economy.
Ms Acquaye said the state still struggles to determine the sector’s precise fiscal contribution despite its growing production importance. Higher gold output does not necessarily translate automatically into higher government revenue, because taxation, royalty collection, formalisation, trading arrangements and enforcement determine how much value the state captures.
She argued that interventions by the Ghana Gold Board should consequently be more closely connected to revenue collection and the broader fiscal architecture.
The policy question is not simply whether increasing volumes of gold are passing through formal trading channels, but whether the state is collecting an appropriate fiscal share without undermining incentives for miners and traders to remain within the formal economy.
Mining communities are another critical part of the debate.
Ghana already uses the Minerals Development Fund to direct part of mineral royalties towards development, but Ms Acquaye cautioned that headline allocation percentages can obscure how much ultimately reaches mining-affected communities after funds are distributed among institutions, assemblies, research bodies and other beneficiaries.
That raises a broader question of economic justice.
Communities that host mining operations often absorb environmental degradation, pressure on water resources, land-use disruption and other consequences of extraction. A revenue-sharing system must therefore demonstrate tangible improvements in infrastructure, livelihoods and public services if the social contract around mining is to remain credible.
But expenditure itself is not sufficient proof of success.
Ms Acquaye cited an example of a school project financed from petroleum revenues where infrastructure was delivered but adequate sanitation facilities were missing, undermining the project’s intended social benefits, particularly for female students.
Her argument is that Ghana must move beyond measuring how much money is spent towards assessing whether spending actually solves the development problem it was intended to address.
That becomes even more important because mineral resources are finite.
Ghana cannot assume that gold, lithium or other minerals will indefinitely retain their current strategic and commercial value. Resource revenues should therefore be treated as an opportunity to build other forms of wealth through infrastructure, education, research, productive industries and stronger institutions.
The proposed rules-based mineral revenue framework would consequently serve a purpose extending beyond accounting.
It would help determine whether Ghana’s current mining windfall becomes a temporary fiscal boost or is transformed into assets capable of supporting economic activity after extraction slows.
With mineral revenues now measured in tens of billions of cedis, the policy question is becoming harder to avoid.
The real test is no longer simply how much Ghana earns from its minerals, but whether the country can demonstrate, clearly and transparently, what that wealth leaves behind.
