Accra, December 11, 2025 – The Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) has called on government to deepen its focus on the development of Ghana’s industrial and development minerals by prioritising value addition, policy reforms and targeted investments along the minerals value chain.
Speaking to the media after a capacity-building training for members of the Parliamentary Press Corps of Ghana on Friday, Senior Policy Analyst and Monitoring and Evaluation Manager at ACEP, Ms. Maybel Acquaye, said Ghana was missing significant economic opportunities by concentrating largely on the extraction of precious minerals such as gold, while paying limited attention to industrial minerals.
According to her, industrial minerals such as clay, limestone and other development minerals have a critical role to play in Ghana’s development agenda if properly harnessed.
“We are not seeking to replace gold or other precious minerals, but industrial and development minerals also have an important place in the country’s economic development,” she stated.
Ms. Acquaye noted that the use of industrial minerals in Ghana has largely been limited to raw extraction and low-value applications, particularly in construction and traditional uses. Using clay as an example, she explained that its use is often confined to pottery, flower pots and low-value inputs for poultry production.
“Our studies show that there are far greater opportunities along the value chain. The higher you move up the value chain, the more value and economic benefits you are able to generate,” she said.
She therefore called for deliberate policy reforms to ensure that industrial minerals are treated as a substantive part of the extractive sector and not as secondary resources during policy discussions.
Beyond policy reforms, Ms. Acquaye emphasised the need to strengthen regulatory and fiscal oversight through the adoption of modern monitoring technologies to accurately record production volumes for effective taxation.
She also highlighted the potential for value addition and beneficiation, noting that Ghana imports most high-value ceramic products despite having the raw materials locally.
“Even though some local companies are producing tiles, there is still a strong preference for imported products, which undermines local production,” she observed.
Ms. Acquaye urged government to strategically target foreign direct investment towards beneficiation, processing and high-end production, rather than focusing solely on extraction where local participation is already high.
She explained that moving up the value chain would expand the economic value of industrial minerals through stronger industrial linkages, job creation and increased fiscal returns.
“Currently, the direct fiscal take from industrial minerals is low because they are low-value products. But when we move into midstream and downstream activities, we create more jobs, increase tax revenues and generate wider socio-economic benefits,” she added.
Ms. Acquaye concluded that a value-chain-driven approach to industrial minerals development would significantly enhance their contribution to government revenue and Ghana’s broader socio-economic development.
Source: Clement Akoloh||parliamentnews360.com
