Ghana’s president John Dramani Mahama has announced that his administration will take a more assertive approach to the renewal of natural resource leases in order to enhance Ghanaian participation in the mining sector and ensure that more benefits flow to communities impacted by mining activities.
Speaking in Accra on April 24, 2025, during the opening of a four-day Executive Leadership Programme for Ministerial Appointees at Ada, Mahama clarified that the government does not plan to seize any existing concessions. Instead, it will focus on improving the terms of renewal to ensure greater local involvement whenever mining leases come up for renegotiation.
“We’re not going to expropriate anybody’s concession or anything,” Mahama assured. “But anytime a lease comes up for renewal, we would want to negotiate to ensure there’s more Ghanaian participation.”
The President also expressed concern about the ongoing poverty in mining communities, where, despite years of resource extraction, local residents have not seen significant improvements in their living standards. He stressed that it was unacceptable for these communities to remain impoverished while the country’s natural resources are being exploited.
“Mining areas are still steeped in poverty. The government has to replace schools under trees, build CHPS compounds, repair the roads, and all that. We can only do that if we can get the resources from the natural resource endowment that God has given us,” he said.
To address this, Mahama outlined a policy aimed at increasing local participation in mining and ensuring that the benefits of the country’s mineral wealth are more widely shared. He noted that the government would push for a review of existing agreements where necessary, and work towards renegotiating terms to allow Ghanaians to benefit more from their own resources.
“We would codify it. And as and when the opportunity comes, we’ll renegotiate some of these things so that Ghanaians can also participate in the blessings that God has given us,” he concluded.
