Ghana’s small-scale gold mining industry has become too big for the government to ignore, yet billions of dollars in gold exports are still generating little direct revenue for the state.
That is the concern raised by economic policy think tank, Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) whose Executive Director and economist, Dr. Said Boakye, presented the think tank’s analysis of the government’s 2026 mid-year budget review.
The think tank says the scale of the small-scale mining industry has changed dramatically, particularly following the implementation of the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme and the establishment of GoldBod.
But while the sector’s contribution to Ghana’s gold exports has surged, the government’s revenue from it has barely moved.
In 2025, small-scale mining accounted for US$10.8 billion, or 51.5%, of Ghana’s total gold exports, according to the IFS analysis.
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Yet the government collected no mineral royalties from the sector, according to information published by the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) cited by the IFS.
For an economy searching for more domestic revenue, the figures expose a gap that is becoming increasingly difficult to defend.
The gold exports are booming. So where is the revenue?
Ghana’s gold exports more than doubled in 2025, jumping 103.3% from US$10.31 billion to US$20.98 billion.
Small-scale miners supplied more than half of that gold.
But mineral royalties, which depend almost entirely on gold production, rose by only 21.1%, from US$364.87 million in 2024 to US$441.82 million in 2025.
The contrast is striking.
Gold exports grew by more than 100%. Royalty collections increased by about one-fifth.
The IFS says information from MIIF shows that the royalties collected in 2025 came from the large-scale mining sector, with no royalties recorded from small-scale mining despite its 51.5% contribution to gold exports.
Presenting the analysis, Dr. Boakye said this imbalance largely explains why the growth in mineral royalties has fallen well short of the growth in gold exports.
A billion-dollar sector outside the tax net
The problem does not stop with mineral royalties.
According to the IFS, its enquiries indicate that other major revenue instruments, including corporate income tax, are also producing little to no revenue from the small-scale mining sector.
That means Ghana is watching the value of gold exports climb without capturing a comparable share of the wealth through the tax system.
For a country facing pressure to raise more domestic revenue, the missed opportunity is significant.
Dr. Boakye said the government needs to develop a specific strategy to generate fiscal revenue from the rapidly expanding small-scale gold mining sector rather than allowing the industry’s growth to occur without a corresponding increase in public revenue.
GoldBod has changed the picture
The establishment of GoldBod and the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme has made the scale of the small-scale mining sector much clearer.
For years, the sector was often viewed as a fragmented part of the mining economy, dominated by small operators and difficult to monitor.
The new gold purchasing arrangements have provided government with greater visibility into the gold being produced and exported.
Dr. Boakye argued that this new visibility should now be used to strengthen revenue mobilisation from the sector.
The argument is straightforward: if the state can identify and channel significant volumes of gold through a formal system, it should also be able to establish mechanisms for ensuring that the country receives an appropriate fiscal return from that activity.
The state cannot afford to look away
The IFS says Ghana’s mineral resources are publicly owned and held by the state in trust for the people.
Dr. Boakye stressed that because the country’s mineral resources are publicly endowed and held by the state on behalf of the people, the state must secure a fair share of the benefits generated from their extraction.
The issue is not simply about collecting more taxes. It is about ensuring that the economic value created from Ghana’s natural resources produces a fair return for the country.
But any new revenue framework will also have to avoid pushing legitimate operators back into informality.
If taxes and royalties are set without regard to the economics of small-scale mining, operators could have an incentive to remain outside the formal system. The challenge for policymakers will therefore be to improve compliance while keeping legitimate mining commercially viable.
Ghana’s next gold challenge
The numbers have already established the importance of small-scale mining.
With US$10.8 billion in exports in a single year, the sector can no longer be treated as a peripheral part of Ghana’s mining economy.
The bigger question is whether government can convert that growth into sustainable public revenue.
For Dr. Boakye and the IFS, the answer requires a deliberate revenue mobilisation strategy rather than allowing the sector’s rapid expansion to continue without a corresponding fiscal return.
Ghana may have found a new engine of gold exports.
It now needs to make sure the taxman is not left behind.
