MLNR-PR UPDATES
The government will not accept any arrangement that compromises true local participation, according to Hon. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, who has issued a strong warning against the increasing trend of foreign corporations using Ghanaian fronts to gain access to mining opportunities.
Speaking to stakeholders at a high-level mining discussion at the inaugural Local Content Summit in 2026, the Minister called fronting “a theft of opportunity” that undermines Ghana’s Local Content goal and breaches national interest.
Hon. Armah-Kofi Buah made his most forceful warning to date in a straightforward speech, saying, “We frown on, and we will not condone, any form of fronting using Ghanaians.”
“Don’t sell your birthright when you can own the bakery,” he said, urging people not to mortgage their future for temporary wealth.
According to him, genuine empowerment is found in long-term value creation, ownership, and capacity rather than in giving names to fictitious agreements that deprive Ghanaians of authority and advantage.
Hon. Buah commended the gathering of professionals and leaders in the industry, pointing out that the conference demonstrated a reinvigorated national resolve under the President’s Reset Agenda to guarantee that Ghanaians own, share in, and profit significantly from the nation’s natural resources.
The Lands Minister noted that, despite Ghana’s abundant mineral resources and the industry’s contribution of roughly 43% of merchandise exports, mining has mostly operated as an enclave economy over the course of more than a century.
He lamented the fact that foreign companies still control the majority of high-value services while local companies still receive less than 40% of procurement spending. He insisted that the time has come to close this disparity through intentional partnerships, technology transfer, and equity participation for Ghanaians.
Fronting is a major contributor to the industry’s ongoing problems, such as illicit mining, according to Mr. Isaac Andrews Tandoh, the Minerals Commission’s chief executive officer.
He pointed out that while hiding under Ghanaian identities, foreign interests continue to gain advantages and maintain power.
He clarified that long-term leases continue to bind national resources into agreements that provide little long-term community benefit and that Ghanaians own very little equity in ventures on their own territory.
He emphasised that ownership and employment are not the same thing.
Mr. Tandoh went on to list significant changes made in the last year, such as the cancellation of more than 300 licenses that were obtained unlawfully, the creation of District Mining Committees, a thorough revision of mining regulations, and stricter local content guidelines.
In order to guarantee that mining turns into a real engine of inclusive national development, he reaffirmed the Commission’s willingness to uphold the law without fear or favour, collaborate with sincere investors, assist competent Ghanaian businesspeople, and combat any kind of fronting or regulatory evasion.
The two-day Local Content Summit, with the theme “Strengthening Local Content and Indigenisation: Building a Resilient Mining Sector in Ghana,” will be place on Wednesday, February 18–19, 2026.
Source: newsthemegh.com