Natural resource and governance expert Dr. Steve Manteaw has sounded a strong warning against growing calls for Chinese companies to take over Ghanaian mines.
The natural resource governance expert is cautioning that the country could be walking into a much bigger geopolitical game without fully understanding the stakes.
Reacting to the alleged efforts of some government appointees to push Chinese firms as preferred investors in Ghana’s mining sector, Dr. Manteaw argued that the global contest for dominance is increasingly shifting from markets and territory to control of critical natural resources.
His concern is not simply about who operates Ghana’s mines, but who ultimately controls the resources that underpin the country’s economic future.
“China will do everything to have a foothold,” he cautioned, warning that Africa risks again arriving late to a geopolitical contest over its own resources.
For Ghana, the warning comes at a time when the country is seeking greater local participation and value addition in its mining industry. Dr. Manteaw’s central question is therefore whether replacing one foreign mining interest with another genuinely advances Ghana’s resource sovereignty or merely changes the identity of the external player.
His argument suggests that Ghana must not confuse foreign investment with foreign control. As the scramble for critical minerals and strategic resources intensifies globally, he believes African countries must become more deliberate about who they invite into their resource sectors, what they receive in return and, most importantly, what control they retain.
The danger, he suggests, is not that China is investing in Africa. The danger is Africa failing to understand the strategic value of what it is giving away.
