Ghana risks losing its dominance in gold production as mining investors shift toward other West African countries with friendlier fiscal regimes, according to the CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ken Ashigbey. Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, he said Ghana’s mining tax structure is making the country less attractive to investors while regional competition intensifies, with the costs of that competition landing on workers, communities, and the public that depends on mining revenue.
Who Holds the Levers
Ashigbey said Ghana is already operating at the upper limit of the IMF’s recommended range for sharing mining profits between governments and investors. “The upper limit is what we are hitting,” he said, warning that some mining firms are already under pressure because of high operating costs and low-grade mines. In the language of the industry, this is a dispute over who gets the biggest cut from the ground being stripped bare. For everyone else, it is another reminder that decisions made at the top of the mining hierarchy determine who bears the burden below.
He said the situation becomes worse when gold prices fall, because the government’s share of mining revenues could exceed 60%. “If you are an investor and the government is going to take above 60, and you have an Ivory Coast and other countries that were going to take less, definitely you are going to find out that some of your investments will move out,” he stated. The message is plain: capital can move, while the people living with the consequences cannot.
Where the Money Goes
Ashigbey disclosed that one mining company recently redirected funds intended for projects in Ghana to Côte d’Ivoire because of Ghana’s fiscal regime. “The money moved into Côte d’Ivoire due to the fiscal regime that is not friendly, especially the royalty,” he revealed. He criticised the increase in royalty rates from 5% to between 5% and 12%, saying it has significantly raised production costs for mining firms. “What you have done is that you’ve added an additional cost to the production of these mining firms,” he said.
That added cost is presented as a problem for investors, but it also shows how the state’s revenue machinery and corporate calculations are locked in a struggle over extraction. The people at the bottom are not asked whether more gold should be dug up, where the money should go, or who should benefit from the wealth pulled from the earth.
Ashigbey noted that Ghana’s stable democracy and incentives under Act 703 previously helped attract investors. The old promise of orderly rule and legal incentives did what such arrangements usually do: it made extraction look respectable. But he said neighbouring countries are quickly adopting similar strategies and becoming more competitive, turning West Africa into a marketplace for mining regimes rather than a place where ordinary people control what happens to their land and labor.
The Race to Undercut
He pointed to Côte d’Ivoire’s growing ambitions in the mining sector. “Their objective is that in the next 10 years they want to be the leading producer of gold in Africa,” he said. “It means they want to take over from us in Ghana.” He cited mining giant Endeavour as one example of a company that shifted focus from Ghana to Côte d’Ivoire, where major gold discoveries were recorded last year.
Ashigbey also warned that Guinea is emerging strongly in the mining space as geological advantages are not unique to Ghana. “The geology is not restricted to Ghana,” he stressed. That line strips away the nationalist branding and leaves the raw competition underneath: governments competing to offer the best deal to investors, while the extraction itself remains in the hands of mining firms.
He called on government to urgently reconsider the country’s fiscal policies to avoid losing more mining investments to competing destinations across West Africa. The appeal is for a better-managed version of the same system, with the same basic structure intact: states bargaining with capital over the terms of extraction, and everyone else left to live with the consequences.