CSOs: Adamus Reprieve Should Trigger New Push to Finance Ghanaian Miners

 

A coalition of civil society organisations advocating greater Ghanaian participation in the extractive sector has welcomed President John Dramani Mahama’s decision to grant Adamus Resources a 12-month reprieve following the dispute over the revocation of its mining leases.

The Coalition of CSOs Promoting Indigenisation in the Extractive Sector (CoCPIES) said the reprieve gives the Ghanaian-owned mining company an opportunity to address its operational and regulatory challenges and remain in business.

Under the arrangement, Adamus is expected to work with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Minerals Commission and the Ghana Revenue Authority to identify practical measures to resolve the challenges affecting its operations.

CoCPIES said the intervention demonstrates the need for Ghana’s indigenisation agenda to move beyond policy statements and provide practical support to local businesses facing financial and operational difficulties.

“The President’s intervention sends an important signal that Ghana’s indigenisation agenda must go beyond rhetoric. It must translate into deliberate policies and practical measures that enable Ghanaian-owned companies to survive, grow and compete effectively in the mining industry,” the coalition said.

Call for mining finance

The coalition said the challenges facing Adamus reflect wider constraints confronting Ghanaian-owned and Ghanaian-participated mining companies.

It cited Heath Goldfields, Engineers and Planners, Prestea Sankofa and Asante Goldfields as other companies requiring strategic support to overcome operational and financing difficulties and retain greater value for the Ghanaian economy.

CoCPIES said access to capital and appropriate technology remains a major constraint on indigenous mining companies and called for targeted financing mechanisms to enable them to participate more meaningfully across the mining value chain.

One proposal is the establishment of a dedicated local content fund for the mining sector, modelled on the approach used in the petroleum industry.

The coalition also wants the Mineral Income Investment Fund (MIIF) to acquire strategic equity stakes in promising Ghanaian mining companies and for government to introduce incentives to encourage indigenous mining firms to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange.

It further proposed measures to facilitate pension fund investment in the sector and promote joint ventures that could strengthen the balance sheets of Ghanaian mining companies and improve their ability to raise capital independently.

Beyond Ghanaian ownership

CoCPIES said increasing the number of Ghanaians participating in mining should not be the end goal.

It argued that countries that have successfully converted natural resources into broad-based economic development have generally done so by ensuring meaningful domestic participation in both resource extraction and value creation.

Such participation, it said, could come through state-owned enterprises, indigenous private companies and strategic equity investments in viable foreign-owned mining operations.

The coalition is therefore calling for a comprehensive national roadmap to address the financing, technology, operational and regulatory challenges confronting indigenous mining companies.

It said the roadmap should form part of a broader national strategy to place Ghanaian businesses at the centre of the extraction, processing and beneficiation of the country’s mineral resources.

“The objective should not simply be to have Ghanaians participating in mining. We must build the financial, technical and institutional capacity required for Ghanaian businesses to own, operate and derive lasting value from the country’s mineral wealth,” the coalition said.

CoCPIES said the President’s intervention in the Adamus dispute provides an opportunity to begin a broader national conversation on strengthening indigenous participation in mining and ensuring Ghana captures a greater share of the economic value generated from its mineral resources.