By Issah Mohammed/Jibril Abdul Mumuni, GNA
Accra, Aug. 18, GNA – Stakeholders in Ghana’s mining sector have identified limited access to finance as the biggest obstacle preventing indigenous companies from competing effectively with foreign firms and taking greater ownership of the country’s mineral resources.
Although Ghana had made significant progress in developing local expertise and strengthening local content regulations, they said inadequate capital remained a major barrier to meaningful Ghanaian participation in large-scale mining.
The stakeholders made the observation during a panel discussion on local content and community participation at the National Mining Dialogue 2026 in Accra on Tuesday.
Held on the theme: “Rethinking the Social Licence to Operate,” the dialogue brought together government officials, regulators, traditional authorities, mining companies, civil society organisations, small-scale miners and development partners to explore strategies for ensuring that Ghana’s mineral wealth created lasting benefits for citizens and host communities.
Mr Bobby Benson, a private legal practitioner, said Ghanaian professionals had, over the years, acquired the technical competence needed to manage mining operations.
He said access to finance, rather than human resource capacity, remained the key challenge facing local companies.
“I think that the only real advantage that foreign companies have, and to some extent still have, is financial capacity,” he added.
Mr Benson said Ghanaian professionals currently occupied leadership positions in many departments of major mining companies, demonstrating that the country had developed the human resource base required to run mining operations.
“The problem is not human resource. It is capital and capacity,” he stated.
Mr Benson noted that modern mining projects required huge financial investments running into hundreds of millions of dollars, an amount beyond the reach of most indigenous firms and local financial institutions.
He explained that mine development and expansion projects often required substantial funding, making it difficult for local companies to compete with multinational corporations that had access to international capital markets.
“When you go for projects, you may need about 600 million dollars to undertake major developments and extend the life of mines. How many local companies can raise 600 million dollars? How many local banks are capitalised to that level?” he asked.
Mr Benson said government should work with financial institutions to develop mechanisms that would improve access to long-term financing for credible Ghanaian mining companies.
He noted that stronger participation by indigenous firms would ensure that a greater share of the benefits from mineral extraction remained within the country.
Rising global gold prices, he said, presented opportunities for local investors, provided they could access adequate funding to enter the industry.
Mr Benson, therefore, called for deliberate policies aimed at supporting Ghanaian entrepreneurs and businesses interested in mining to grow.
Speaking on the same panel, Dr Nana Adarkwa Bediako III, Gyasehene of the Apinto Divisional Council in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality, said local participation should go beyond employment and procurement to include greater involvement of host communities in decision-making.
Traditional authorities and local communities often had little influence over negotiations preceding the granting of mining leases despite being directly affected by mining activities, he said.
“We should be on the sitting table. The discussion must be a three-way discussion,” he said, referring to government, mining companies, and host communities.
Dr Bediako noted that while Ghana had established one of Africa’s most comprehensive local content frameworks for the mining sector, achieving meaningful ownership and participation would require addressing financial constraints confronting local businesses, he said.
He said the current mining model had not generated sufficient long-term economic opportunities for some host communities after decades of mineral extraction.
The Gyasehene, therefore, called for stronger collaboration between mining companies and host communities in designing development interventions to ensure that projects addressed local needs.
GNA
Edited by Agnes Boye-Doe
18 Aug. 2026
Reporters: Issah Mohammed/Jibril Abdul Mumuni