Export earnings and native procurement figures inform solely a part of the story. Ghana’s mining provide chain reveals how higher measurement might inform manufacturing funding and negotiations.
By Dr. Richard Munang
Each mine retains a buying checklist.
Explosives. Cement. Lime. Work garments. Metal balls that grind ore throughout mineral processing.
These purchases provide a sensible place to begin for a bigger query: of each greenback generated by mining, how a lot turns into earnings for the nation supplying the useful resource?
Export income alone can’t reply it. Nor can the quantity passing by home banks or invoices issued by domestically registered suppliers.
I name the query behind this accounting the “hold fee”. Its goal is to look at the worth retained by public income, employees’ earnings, home manufacturing and resident possession. Turning that query right into a defensible quantity requires clear boundaries and proof.
What Ghana’s figures can inform us
The Ghana Chamber of Mines’ President’s handle of 30 Might 2025 experiences that producing members accounted for 59.4% of nationwide gold output in 2024 and generated roughly US$7.1 billion in mineral income.
The handle individually experiences US$2.9 billion in native procurement, US$1.4 billion in taxes and greater than US$600 million in worker emoluments.
These are helpful beginning factors. They describe reported funds, nevertheless, somewhat than a verified measure of retained worth. They concern the Chamber’s reporting inhabitants and shouldn’t be introduced as totals for Ghana’s whole mining trade.
Including them collectively would require additional checks. If worker earnings tax is included in each gross remuneration and tax funds, it should be counted as soon as. Authorities dividends should likewise seem in just one class.
Native procurement wants an extra distinction. A provider registered in Ghana might import the product it sells. The bill information a home transaction; it doesn’t set up how a lot manufacturing, employment or earnings the acquisition helps inside Ghana.
The accessible figures subsequently don’t set up a nationwide hold fee, or a dependable decrease and higher sure for one.
Cash returned by a home monetary establishment is a distinct measure once more. It could subsequently pay for imported tools or providers. Repatriation is related to foreign-exchange flows, but it surely doesn’t reveal how a lot earnings in the end stays.
A procurement alternative, adopted by an illustrative calculation
Grinding media makes the excellence concrete.
In April 2026 protection of the launch of Ghana’s grinding-media requirements, Chamber chief government Kenneth Ashigbey was reported as saying procurement had grown to over US$131 million by December 2023, with about US$20 million sourced from native producers.
Enterprise & Monetary Instances individually reported his estimate that the brand new requirements might unlock about US$92 million in alternatives for native producers. That is the Chamber’s reported evaluation, somewhat than a determine calculated right here by subtracting the procurement quantities.
The estimate factors to a historic sourcing alternative. It doesn’t set up confirmed demand accessible to any explicit new manufacturing facility.
Ghana’s work on grinding-media requirements addresses an necessary business subject: producers should produce inputs that mines can belief. Native manufacturing nonetheless has to satisfy necessities for efficiency, reliability and value.
Now take into account a hypothetical growth in home manufacturing that wins US$92 million in further orders over a specified interval.
The worth retained would rely upon imported inputs, funds overseas and the earnings generated domestically. For illustration:
| Assumed share in the end retained domestically | Illustrative retained quantity |
|---|---|
| 25% | US$23 million |
| 50% | US$46 million |
| 100% | US$92 million |
The calculation is further orders multiplied by the assumed retained share. The ultimate row is a theoretical ceiling.
None of those percentages is an noticed end result. The illustration doesn’t set up that the orders have been received, that manufacturing capability exists or that the funding could be commercially viable. It additionally can’t be divided by the separate 2024 mining income determine to assert a measured enchancment in Ghana’s hold fee.
Its worth is to reveal the idea that issues. Profitable a home provide contract and retaining the contract’s full worth are completely different outcomes.
What companies and governments ought to negotiate
For a producer, the subsequent questions concern clients, specs, manufacturing prices and finance.
How a lot demand can patrons credibly decide to? Which inputs should be imported? Can the proposed plant meet high quality necessities constantly? What fee phrases would permit it to finance manufacturing?
For governments, these questions can enhance funding negotiations. A dedication to extend native procurement turns into extra helpful when it identifies merchandise, supply dates, manufacturing exercise and proof of efficiency.
An funding proposal ought to distinguish the worth of contracts from the home earnings these contracts might generate. It must also distinguish current employment from further jobs, and projected jobs from folks truly employed.
The identical self-discipline applies to native processing. A processing plant might create alternatives, however its contribution can’t be inferred from its gross sales alone. Imported equipment, working inputs, financing prices and funds to non-resident house owners all have an effect on the evaluation.
Royalties stay necessary. They’re one a part of the business relationship alongside employment, procurement and possession.
Construct a measure that others can reproduce
A sensible pilot ought to start with an outlined group of firms and one reporting interval.
The income denominator should cowl that very same group and interval. Funds ought to be recorded in a constant foreign money, with any conversions defined.
The supporting ledger ought to distinguish public receipts, employees’ earnings, purchases and possession returns. The place a provider’s contribution is traced by its wages, taxes and income, these quantities should not even be counted by the provider’s full bill.
The evaluation should additionally state whether or not “native” means residence, citizenship, possession or place of manufacturing. These are associated questions, however they produce completely different solutions.
Lacking info ought to stay seen. A calculation is extra helpful when readers can reproduce its supported parts and establish what has not but been established.
Ghana’s mining EITI report revealed in December 2025 covers 2023. It doesn’t independently reconcile the 2024 figures mentioned right here. These figures stay attributed to the Chamber’s reporting.
My methodology working paper proposes a basic method. It has not been peer reviewed and doesn’t comprise the Ghana calculation. A reproducible pilot, with impartial checks, ought to precede claims of a verified country-level end result.
Nor would such a measure change assessments of environmental injury, public prices or group welfare. It could reply a narrower query about specified financial flows.
Each mine retains a buying checklist. Beside it, a rustic can construct an account of what was bought, the place it was produced and who acquired the ensuing earnings.
That proof will help companies establish investable alternatives and governments assess whether or not negotiated commitments are being delivered.
Africa just isn’t poor. Africa is uncounted.
In regards to the writer
Dr. Richard Munang is Director of the United Nations College Institute for Pure Sources in Africa (UNU-INRA), based mostly in Accra, Ghana.
Sources
- Ghana Chamber of Mines, President’s handle, 30 Might 2025, sections “Efficiency of Ghana’s Mining Business in 2024” and “Expenditure of Income by Member Firms”.
- Ghana Information Company, Ghana launches requirements to spice up native grinding media manufacturing, 24 April 2026.
- Enterprise & Monetary Instances, Mining trade highlights US$92m native manufacturing alternative, 24 April 2026.
- Ghana Minerals Fee, From Import Dependency to Nationwide Requirements: Strengthening Ghana’s Mining Worth Chain.
- Ghana 2023 EITI Report, Mining, revealed December 2025.
- Richard Munang, Counting What Africa Retains: A Subject Methodology for Measuring Worth Retention, Jobs and Circulation from Pure Useful resource Conversion, from Neighborhood to Continent, model 1.4, revealed 25 August 2026. Methodology preprint; not peer reviewed.
