Ken Asigbey, Chief Govt Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, has expressed concern over the nation’s mining income construction, revealing that multinational mining corporations account for a excessive proportion of royalties regardless of a small proportion of the nation’s complete gold manufacturing.
Talking on the JoyBusiness Roundtable, Ashigbey mentioned that US-majority-owned corporations will account for 12% of Ghana’s manufacturing in 2025, however will contribute 23% in royalties.
“Firms with majority US possession contributed 12% of Ghana’s manufacturing however paid 23% in royalties,” he mentioned.
He additional identified that Chinese language-owned corporations produce 10% of complete output and pay 23% in royalties, whereas South African corporations account for 18% of output however pay 37% in royalties.
“South African corporations contributed 18% of manufacturing however paid 37% in royalties,” he added.
He mentioned Canadian and Australian corporations invested 2% and three% of manufacturing, respectively, and every paid 5% in royalties.
In distinction, massive Ghanaian-owned mining corporations account for simply 4% of manufacturing, with the broader native sector accounting for 7%.
Mr. Asigbey argued that the figures confirmed an imbalance in Ghana’s mining economic system, with multinational corporations contributing much less to general manufacturing however bearing a bigger share of royalty funds.
“The small scale sector contributed 52% of manufacturing, however obtained just about zero royalties,” he mentioned.
He argued that Ghana’s mining income system doesn’t present optimum worth to the state and host communities and is in want of reform.
Mr Asigbay additional emphasised the necessity to rethink how mining revenues are distributed, noting that presently most mineral royalties circulate into the Consolidated Fund moderately than straight supporting mining communities.
“Solely 8% of mineral royalties are paid to mining areas and that should change if we wish to see improvement,” he mentioned.
He additionally outlined the present distribution construction, explaining that 78 p.c of royalties go to the Consolidated Fund, 2 p.c to the Mineral Revenue Funding Fund (MIIF), and the remaining 20 p.c to be distributed amongst varied state businesses and beneficiaries.
Mr Asigbey expressed concern that an excessive amount of income stays concentrated in Accra, limiting the direct advantages that mining communities can deliver to native improvement tasks.
He additionally highlighted the intensive tax contributions of huge mining corporations, noting that regardless of public criticism, multinationals proceed to contribute considerably to authorities revenues by way of taxes and royalties.
He due to this fact referred to as for a nationwide dialogue on how Ghana can maximize the advantages from its mineral sources whereas guaranteeing extra equitable improvement for mining communities.
