IEA Urges Government to Scrap Mining Tax Incentives
Accra, Ghana — The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has called on government to abolish tax incentives and review royalty rates in Ghana’s mining sector to ensure the country secures fair value from its mineral wealth.
According to the think tank, Ghana’s current fiscal and ownership structures in the extractive industry are “skewed against the national interest” and continue to deprive citizens of their rightful share of returns from natural resource exploitation.
Speaking at an IEA policy seminar on “Reviewing Ghana’s Natural Resources Management Framework,” Senior Research Fellow Dr. Eric Oduosai said decades of policy design have entrenched inequality between investors and the state.
“The first thing we must do is to review ownership structures to encourage local participation,” he said. “I also propose that we abolish tax incentives and review royalty rates. The capping at five percent may not be helping, but if you don’t cap it, then you must work hand in hand with mining companies to raise production so that royalties can increase.”
Dr. Oduosai stressed that the government must move beyond symbolic policy adjustments and implement structural reforms that boost local equity, curb revenue leakages, and align mining taxation with productivity.
Former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo, who also addressed the forum, supported the call for a national dialogue on Ghana’s resource governance, emphasizing the need for a unified strategy to maximize benefits from the country’s mineral, oil, and gas sectors. “Our natural resource sector continues to anchor the economy, but its benefits remain skewed,” she said. “Outdated legal frameworks, excessively generous fiscal incentives, and weak local participation have limited the nation’s share of its own wealth.”
Justice Akuffo added that without a fundamental review of ownership laws and fiscal regimes, Ghana’s goal of economic independence would remain out of reach. The Institute maintains that Ghana’s fiscal framework for extractive industries including mining, oil, and gas must be transparent, equitable, and performance-linked.
It is urging government to adopt a comprehensive resource policy that eliminates unproductive incentives, enforces stronger local content participation, and improves the royalty and taxation system to reflect actual production volumes and profits.
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