Ghana, Africa’s leading gold producer, continues to sit on vast mineral wealth, yet the true value of its gold remains frustratingly out of reach. In a hard-hitting commentary, policy analyst and IMANI Africa Vice President, Bright Simons, argues that the country’s biggest problem is not the absence of resources but a crippling “constipation of imagination” that has stalled innovation, value addition and long-term national benefit.
According to Simons, Ghana’s gold sector has for decades been structured around extraction and export, with little strategic thinking about how to convert raw minerals into sustainable prosperity. While billions of dollars’ worth of gold leave the country annually, local industries, research institutions and manufacturing ecosystems remain largely disconnected from the wealth beneath Ghanaian soil.
He contends that successive governments have failed to move beyond conventional mining agreements and royalty frameworks, choosing short-term revenue over bold, transformative ideas. Instead of investing aggressively in refining, jewelry manufacturing, gold-backed industrial inputs and advanced mineral technologies, Ghana has remained content with exporting raw gold and importing finished products at higher costs.
Simons further notes that this lack of imagination has weakened Ghana’s bargaining power on the global stage. As other resource-rich nations leverage minerals to drive industrialisation, technology transfer and skilled employment, Ghana risks being left behind, locked into a colonial-style extractive model that offers limited developmental returns.
The policy analyst also warns that the gold conversation in Ghana is often reduced to illegal mining, environmental destruction and revenue leakages, important as these issues are. However, he insists that the deeper crisis is the absence of a national vision that treats gold as a strategic asset capable of transforming manufacturing, finance and innovation.
Bright Simons is calling for a radical rethink — one that brings together government, the private sector, academia and innovators to reimagine what Ghana can do with its gold beyond digging it out of the ground. Without such a shift, he cautions, Ghana will continue to be rich in resources but poor in outcomes.
As debates about mining reforms, gold trading and economic diversification intensify, Simons’ commentary serves as a sharp reminder that true wealth lies not only in what a country has, but in how boldly it thinks about using it.
