Ghana plans to end the export of raw mineral ores by 2031 as part of a broader push to process more of its natural resources domestically and capture greater economic value from its mineral wealth, President John Dramani Mahama has said.
Mahama said the policy forms part of the government’s wider effort to move Ghana away from a model in which valuable natural resources are extracted and exported with limited processing, leaving much of the value and employment to be created elsewhere.
“I’ve also said that by 2031, we want to end raw ore, mineral ore exports,” Mahama said in an interview with Ghida Fakhry on TRT World’s Bigger Than Five.
He said Ghana would instead seek to undertake primary and secondary processing of minerals locally, citing manganese and other minerals that are increasingly important to the global energy transition.
“Manganese and all of them are special minerals that are useful for the whole EV revolution and all that,” he said.
The policy is central to Mahama’s broader argument that African countries must gain greater control over their natural resources and move beyond dependence on the export of commodities in their raw form.
He said Ghana’s experience with cocoa illustrates the economic cost of exporting resources without sufficient local processing. Ghana, one of the world’s largest cocoa producers, currently processes only about 30% of its cocoa locally, according to Mahama, with the remainder exported for processing abroad.
Those exports, he said, effectively mean that jobs and additional economic activity associated with processing are also being exported.
“We believe that the time has come for us to add value to our natural resources rather than just export them,” Mahama said.
The government is targeting an increase in local cocoa processing to at least 50%, while also changing the financing model for cocoa purchases to give Ghana greater control over the commodity.
The mineral policy extends the same approach to the mining sector, where Ghana remains a major producer of gold, manganese and other minerals.
Mahama said greater domestic processing would allow Ghana to retain more value from its resources, create industrial jobs and strengthen its position in global supply chains.
The strategy also forms part of the President’s Accra Reset agenda, which seeks to reduce Africa’s economic dependence by strengthening domestic production, financial capacity and control over natural resources.
For Mahama, the objective is not to reject international trade or partnerships, but to change the terms under which African countries participate in the global economy.
“We don’t reject partnerships, but those partnerships must be on our terms,” he said.
The 2031 target therefore represents more than a restriction on raw mineral exports. It is part of a broader attempt to shift Ghana from being primarily a supplier of raw materials to becoming a producer and processor of higher-value goods.
