Fitch Solutions is warning of a resource nationalism risks in Ghana which it describes will persist under President Akufo-Addo.

According to its report on ‘Resource Nationalism in SSA: A Trend Towards Beneficiation Requirements’, it said risks will also be sustained by deteriorating public finances in the country.

It further said that a debt-repayment crisis means that Ghana has been trying to restructure more than $30 billion of domestic and international debt since late-2022.

“Default risks could encourage the government to seek higher tax revenues from the mining sector by raising royalty payments, for instance”, it added.

It continued that President Akufo-Addo has previously stated that fiscal incentives for mining firms in the country agreed by previous administrations are too generous.

The report pointed out that several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are illustrating rising resource nationalism towards their respective mining sectors. This is part of a global trend towards greater government intervention in the mining industry that has been in place since 2020.

In SSA, countries where resource nationalism risks are high and/or rising include The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Drivers of Increased Government Intervention

The report further that increased government intervention in the mining sector of these countries will generally aim to extract greater value from the mineral supply chain for local stakeholders including the government (taxes), employees (jobs) and the mining service industry (suppliers and contractors).