Ghana loses $6.56 billion in mining revenue each year
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on MyJoyOnline
Illustrative image · Johannes Plenio · Pexels · Licence PexelsGhana could be losing $6.56 billion in mining revenue each year, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The institute estimates this shortfall is equivalent to the additional revenue obtained in 2025 if Ghana had matched Botswana's performance, and calls on the government to act in the 2027 budget.
Ghana could be losing $6.56 billion in potential annual mining revenue because of limited state participation in mineral extraction, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The estimate was presented by the institute's executive director, Said Boakye, at a meeting on public revenue mobilisation in Accra.
The IFS estimates that Ghana could have generated an additional $6.56 billion in 2025 if it had reached Botswana's level of mining revenue mobilisation. Botswana generated $13.4 billion in added value from mining activity in 2025, compared with $1.6 billion in mining revenue for Ghana, or 11.9% of the sector's value, according to Said Boakye.
At the same mobilisation rate as Botswana's average of 60.9%, Ghana's mining revenue would have reached $8.16 billion in 2025, compared with $1.6 billion actually collected. Said Boakye called on the authorities to use the 2027 budget to reduce these losses and cited tax fraud, underreporting, tax optimisation and collusion among revenue administrators as factors limiting domestic mobilisation.
More broadly, Ghana's ratio of public revenue and grants to GDP stood at 15.7% in 2022, compared with an average of 20.1% in the 25 sub-Saharan African countries studied by the IFS. The institute estimates that Ghana would have received 288.26 billion cedis in revenue and grants in 2025 at this regional average, compared with 224.88 billion actually collected. The country thus ranked 18th among the 25 economies studied, according to the IFS.
