The Galamsey Fight, Jobs, and Livelihoods
Introduction
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), popularly known as galamsey, remains one of Ghana’s most contentious development challenges. While it undeniably provides jobs and incomes for thousands, its destructive impact on the environment, water resources, and agriculture has reached catastrophic levels. Successive governments have sought to formalize, regulate, or replace it with alternative livelihood programmes, yet the problem persists.
The Uncertain Numbers Behind Galamsey Jobs
The true number of people employed in galamsey remains unknown. A widely quoted claim suggests over one million direct jobs and four million dependents, but this figure is unsubstantiated. It appears to trace back to Hilson and McQuilken’s 2014 review of ASM in sub-Saharan Africa.
Official data paints a more sobering picture. According to the Ghana Statistical Service’s Quarterly Labour Statistics Bulletin (Q4 2024), Ghana’s economically active population (15 years and older) was 20.8 million, comprising 12.7 million employed, 1.9 million unemployed, and 6.2 million outside the labour force. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing led with 4.6 million employed, followed by wholesale/retail trade (2.6 million) and manufacturing (1.2 million). Mining and quarrying—covering both large-scale and small-scale operations—employed just 273,425 people.
Clearly, galamsey jobs are far fewer than popular narratives suggest, yet their environmental cost is disproportionately high.
Historical Roots of Marginalization
ASM in Ghana dates back to pre-colonial times, when Akan, Wassa, Akyem, and Asante communities engaged in alluvial and shallow-pit gold mining under customary regulation. Chiefs managed mineral rights, ensuring communal benefit.
Colonial rule upended this system. The British imposed strict mining laws that marginalized indigenous miners and reserved concessions for European companies. Post-independence, Ghana largely maintained these laws, and though PNDC Law 218 of 1989 formally recognized ASM, bureaucratic hurdles and costs kept most operators informal.
Over time, the distinction between “legal” and “illegal” ASM blurred. Both became ecologically destructive, contaminating rivers, degrading forests and farmlands, and poisoning food crops with mercury, lead, and arsenic. What began as survivalist mining evolved into an environmental disaster.
The Community Mining Schemes and NAELP: Promise vs. Reality
In 2019, the Akufo-Addo government launched the Community Mining Schemes (CMS) to regulate galamsey under community-based structures. CMS promised licensing, environmental and safety regulations, mercury-free ore processing, and skills training. By 2022, 65 schemes were expected to generate nearly 40,000 jobs.
However, implementation was plagued by political interference. Local elites, foreign business associates, and partisan interests hijacked the schemes. Instead of curbing galamsey, the problem worsened.
The National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme (NAELP), introduced in 2021, aimed to provide youth with alternatives in agriculture, agro-processing, re-afforestation, and mine support services. It promised 220,000 jobs, reclamation of 1,000 hectares of degraded land, and training for 20,000 miners. Yet its impact was negligible. Both CMS and NAELP became additional case studies of how good policy is often badly implemented in Ghana.
The NDC’s 2024 Pledges
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) entered the 2024 elections with a manifesto that pledged a more structured approach. Key commitments included:
– Halting politically connected illegal mining.
– Re-categorizing mining into small, medium, and large scale with tailored regulations.
– Promoting sustainable small-scale mining (SSM) through technology, including AI tracking of excavators and geo-fencing concessions.
– Banning mining in forest reserves and water bodies, while enforcing rehabilitation of degraded lands.
– Establishing equipment pools and financing schemes to professionalize small-scale mining.
Crucially, the NDC promised to restructure community mining into transparent, community-driven projects balancing jobs with environmental protection. If implemented with integrity, these policies could transform ASM into a regulated contributor to local development.
The Mahama Administration’s Current Record
Since returning to power in January 2025, the Mahama administration has taken some steps but has yet to show significant results. Civil society reports and media investigations reveal that politically connected individuals within the NDC are still implicated in galamsey.
The environmental toll remains severe. Rivers such as the Ayensu continue to suffer extreme turbidity, leading to the closure of the Kwanyako Water Treatment Plant and cutting off water supply to 10 Central Region districts—affecting an estimated 1.5 million people. Public frustration has grown, with groups like the Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey (GCAC), labour unions, and religious organizations urging the President to declare a state of emergency. The government insists other measures must be exhausted first, but patience is wearing thin.
rCOMSDEP: The New Experiment
On 6 August 2025, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Armah Kofi Buah launched the Responsible Cooperative Mining and Skills Development Programme (rCOMSDEP) in Obuasi.
Eight persons including the Ministers of Defence and Environment died in a helicopter crash enroute to attend that event.
This initiative consolidates CMS and NAELP under a single framework aimed at promoting responsible ASM. It is complemented by the Ghana GOLDBOD whose mandate includes promoting sustainable ASM.
Yet critical gaps remain. The programme document is not publicly available, and no clear performance indicators or targets have been announced. Without measurable benchmarks, rCOMSDEP risks repeating the failures of its predecessors.
Conclusion: The Way Forward
Galamsey supports families but destroys natural capital—water, forests, soils—that underpins all other livelihoods. Efforts such as CMS, NAELP, and now rCOMSDEP demonstrate that policy design is not the problem; implementation, enforcement, and political will are.
To break the cycle, Ghana must:
1. Acknowledge the real scale of ASM employment rather than relying on inflated numbers.
2. Strengthen law enforcement free from political interference.
3. Ensure transparency and community participation in concession allocation.
4. Invest in alternative livelihoods that are genuinely viable, not token programmes.
5. Integrate technology and financing to professionalize ASM while safeguarding the environment.
Tackling galamsey will be a key element of President Mahama’s legacy.
It is a fight for Ghana’s future. If handled with courage, competence and accountability, it could shift from an existential threat to a catalyst for inclusive growth, sustainable development and jobs in the ASM value chain.
But if governance continues to falter and poor policy implementation persists, the costs—ecological, economic, and social—will far outweigh the jobs it sustains.
Nicholas Issaka Gbana
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-issaka-gbana-98478536/
https://web.facebook.com/n.issaka.gbana
@GbanaIssaka
The writer is a Development Economist, Chartered Accountant and Consultant
