For nearly two decades, gold has been the mainstay of Ghana’s export economy. In 2025, it crossed a threshold that makes that dominance difficult to miss as gold alone accounted for 63.1% of all merchandise exports.
That is a very different export basket from the one Ghana had in 2004, when gold represented 38.5% of exports and cocoa accounted for 29.3%, according to merchandise trade data.
The change has been especially sharp in the past three years. Gold’s share rose from 37.6% in 2022 to 45.4% in 2023, 55.3% in 2024 and 63.1% in 2025.
At the same time, the shares of two other major export earners have moved in the opposite direction.
Mineral fuels and oils accounted for 30.4% of exports in 2022 but just 8.8% in 2025. Cocoa, which represented almost three in every 10 export dollars in 2004, accounted for 14% last year.
The result is a striking change in the balance of Ghana’s export economy: a commodity that was already its leading export has become overwhelmingly dominant.
Gold’s lead was once much narrower
Ghana’s dependence on gold is not new.
Gold was the largest major export in most years of the 2004–2025 period, although its position was not always secure.
Cocoa overtook gold in 2005 and 2006, when gold accounted for 22.7% and 25.7% of exports respectively. Mineral fuels and oils also briefly moved ahead of gold in 2014.
The difference was that the major export commodities were once much closer together.
In 2004, gold’s 38.5% share was only 9.2 percentage points above cocoa’s 29.3%.
By 2025, the gap between gold and cocoa had widened to 49.1 percentage points.
Gold’s share was also more than seven times that of mineral fuels and oils.
The sharpest widening came recently. Between 2022 and 2025, gold gained 25.5 percentage points of the export basket, while oil and fuel lost 21.6 percentage points.
Cocoa is earning more, but taking a smaller share
Cocoa’s falling share does not tell the whole story.
Ghana’s cocoa bean exports reached a record US$4.2 billion in 2025, even though cocoa beans and products accounted for only 14% of total exports.
That is because the value of Ghana’s gold exports has grown much faster.
The Bank of Ghana said gold export earnings more than doubled in 2025 to US$20.98 billion, from US$10.31 billion in 2024. Export volumes rose 35.7%, while the average gold price increased 49.9% to US$3,400.35 per fine ounce.
That combination of higher volumes and prices has pushed gold well beyond its previous position in Ghana’s export mix.
The Ghana Statistical Service’s trade data also shows the scale of the shift. Gold bullion accounted for 55.3% of exports in 2024, while crude petroleum and cocoa were the next largest categories.
The export basket is becoming more concentrated
The significance of the shift is not simply that Ghana is earning more from gold.
It is that a growing proportion of the country’s export earnings now depends on one commodity.
In 2004, gold and cocoa together accounted for about two-thirds of exports. In 2025, gold alone accounted for almost the same proportion.
That change has happened even as Ghana’s overall trade has expanded substantially. Total merchandise trade increased from about US$6 billion in 2004 to US$52.5 billion in 2025.
Gold has therefore grown alongside the wider export economy, rather than simply taking a larger share of a stagnant pool.
The development is also continuing into 2026. Ghana’s Gold Board said in July that artisanal and small-scale mining output was on track to match or exceed the 104 metric tonnes recorded in 2025, when the sector generated nearly $11 billion in foreign exchange.
For a country whose traditional export story has long revolved around gold and cocoa, the latest figures mark a notable change in the balance between the two.
Gold is no longer simply Ghana’s biggest export. In 2025, it accounted for nearly two-thirds of everything the country sold abroad.
