As government trumpets the Cabinet’s decision to apply for BRICS membership as a revolutionary leap toward economic sovereignty, banking and finance expert Dr. Richmond Akwasi Atuahene has issued a stinging, heart-piercing counter-warning against the move.
In his sharp analytical paper titled “Ghana joining the BRICS or Re-orienting Ghana’s Economic Destiny,” Dr. Atuahene argues that chasing economic salvation in emerging geopolitical blocs is a dangerous illusion that ignores Ghana’s dying internal foundation.
The finance analyst passed a very strong and uncompromising verdict that joining BRICS will not cure Ghana’s chronic economic agony. For him, external alliances cannot save a bleeding nation when its internal structural house is ablaze.
He further argues that, having already run to the International Monetary Fund 17 times since independence without fixing its core flaws, Ghana is once again repeating the tragic mistake of seeking external remedies for self-inflicted internal failures.
Trapped in the Unbroken Chains of a Colonial Economy
READ ALSO
At the core of Dr. Atuahene’s case is Ghana’s failure to dismantle its century-old colonial architecture, the “Guggisberg economy.” For over a hundred years, Ghana has functioned as a passive primary supplier, exporting unprocessed gold, raw cocoa beans, and crude oil while relying almost entirely on imported manufactured goods and basic consumer items.
Dr. Atuahene emphasizes that joining BRICS does not automatically alter this fundamental flaw. Swapping or adding trade partners in Beijing, New Delhi, or Moscow without building domestic processing capacity changes nothing.
In fact, he adds that opening deeper trade channels with industrial manufacturing powerhouses like China, India, and Brazil risks flooding Ghanaian markets with cheap imported goods, suffocating infant domestic industries and worsening trade deficits.
Real wealth, he says, comes from local processing as proven by local cocoa processing revenues reaching $1.8 billion in 2025, not from sending raw commodities to new destinations.
Ignoring Domestic Crises and National Security Threats
While political leaders focus on international diplomacy, Dr. Atuahene insists that Ghana’s most urgent, heart-piercing threats are burning at home.
Chief among them is an explosive youth joblessness crisis that directly threatens national stability. He cites that over 1.3 million young Ghanaians aged 15 to 24 are currently not in education, employment, or training (NEET), while more than 510,000 graduates hit the labor market annually to face empty prospects.
He adds that frustration and desperation are driving thousands of youths toward cybercrime (sakawa), armed robbery, kidnapping, and political vigilantism. Recent tragedies, such as the fatal stampede at El-Wak Stadium where desperate youths competed for a handful of recruitment slots, illustrate this panic.
A nationwide survey reveals that 46% of citizens view joblessness as the country’s single greatest threat. Simultaneously, Ghana is bleeding scarce foreign exchange on basic food and consumer imports by spending up to $500 million on rice, $500 million on poultry, $168 million on tomatoes, $104 million on onions, and a staggering $620 million to $740 million on imported used vehicles every year.
Compounding this tragedy, illegal gold mining (galamsey) is destroying major river systems, including the Pra, Ankobra, Birim, and Densu, with toxic mercury and cyanide, wiping out cocoa farms, and leaving open mining pits that drown children and breed malaria.
Dr. Atuahene maintains that joining BRICS offers zero solutions for these devastating domestic realities.
False Promises, Debt Traps, and Financial Sanctions
Dr. Atuahene also shatters the myth that BRICS or its New Development Bank (NDB) will deliver easy financial rescues.
The finance expert argues that Ghana remains trapped under a crushing debt mountain, facing $6.4 billion in Eurobond principal and interest payments between 2027 and 2030, alongside over GH¢106 billion in domestic debt (DDEP) repayments in 2027 and 2028.
BRICS membership, he says, does not provide unconditional bailouts or replace the stabilization role of the IMF. Furthermore, aligning closely with rival geopolitical blocs risks compromising Ghana’s non-aligned stance, exposing local Ghanaian banks to compliance friction and Western financial sanctions.
In addition, Dr. Atuahene insists that alignment to external blocs will not cure Ghana’s endemic corruption. Ghana loses close to GH¢10 billion annually to corruption and GH¢5 billion in cash bribes in a single year; joining BRICS merely exports unaddressed governance decay to a new global stage.
The Bottomline: Domestic Reconstruction First
Dr. Atuahene’s conclusion pierces the heart of the national debate that “External economic alliances are tools, not cures.”
Ghana cannot negotiate its way to prosperity from foreign capitals while its rivers run toxic, its farms are destroyed, and its youth wander in despair.
For him, true economic salvation demands an inward revolution, which is dismantling the colonial economic structure through aggressive value addition, local industrialization, and domestic resource mobilization.
Domestic reconstruction must be the topmost priority; international multi-alignment can only come second.
