For decades, most Ghanaians have perceived foreign actors participating in Ghana’s resource extraction as either exploitative or destructive of our natural environment. They have held the view that large-scale mining companies with foreign actors as majority shareholders extract the resources, export the proceeds and leave little or no measurable impacts on the local mining communities. While these large-scale companies are mostly chastised for minimal positive local economic impacts, their environmental footprints are mostly of less concern and or praised by the locals.

On the contrary, foreign-owned companies, which are mostly perceived to provide some real benefits to the locals, are mostly found in the small-scale mining sector. This is also because the locals can complement, support activities and directly benefit from the mining value chain, and so they deem such actors more relevant. However, the blurred side of such perception is the negative environmental footprints which these actors promote; a reason why unsustainable small-scale mining activities have become a topical issue in Ghana.

These complexities surrounding the activities of foreign actors in local mining justify my conviction that the local content laws of Ghana, if effectively implemented, will help address some of these challenges in Ghana’s mining sector. This is because the local content framework, supported by the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) and L.I. 2173, 2012 and the broader Africa Mining Vision, aims to create local employment and promote growth of domestic manufacturing.

The framework includes procurement plans and measures to develop the supply of local goods and services, including technical and financial assistance, and preference for companies with the highest Ghanaian content. It seeks to ensure that mining activities rely on and procure local goods and services. Other strategies include ensuring that international firms hire and train local staff, promote local procurement, while the government also seeks to organise training programs and finance activities to empower local players.

The government seeks to shift local content from simple transactions to real partnerships, value addition, and building local capacity. The local content requirements in Ghana's mining sector are designed to ensure that local communities benefit from the extraction and processing of minerals. These requirements aim to promote local employment, reduce dependency on foreign labour, and support the development of local industries.

The establishment of the GoldBod is also helping to streamline gold commercialisation for small-scale miners, elevate the integrity and credibility of gold trade and transactions and enable the miners to secure funding through certificates of gold sales. The GoldBod also seeks to support community mining cooperatives, providing training, registering miners, and issuing concessions, which will foster job creation and formalise the sector. Other strategies include plans to promote the transition from raw export of resources to an active participant across the entire extractive value chain.

Given the backdrop of the emerging trends, Ghanaians must revise their interest in Ghana’s mining, away from the perception of a reserve for foreigners. Ghanaians should redirect their energies away from the perception that it is only smaller-scale and, sometimes, unregulated small-scale mining that is available and easy for them to participate in.

We should begin to explore the many opportunities arising from the current reforms in mining. These opportunities include participating in direct, regulated small-scale mining activities, providing support services and supplies to both large and small-scale mining entities, engaging in officially sanctioned gold trade business through the GoldBod, reclamation activities and other avenues which can contribute to both local employment and environmental sustainability. As Ghanaians, we must begin to convert our informal interest in Ghana’s mining, reconfigure our entrepreneurship initiatives to exploit the evolving benefits in the current drive in Ghana’s mining sector.