Gold Industry’s GH¢88 bn Boost to Ghana’s GDP Highlights Strategic Economic Role
The government of Ghana announced that the gold industry added GH¢88.1 billion to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2024. At the same time, gold exports have reached US$11.2 billion as of August 2025. Vice-President Naana Jane Opoku‑Agyemang revealed these figures during the inauguration of the Ahafo North Mine, operated by Newmont Corporation, on 30 October 2025.
According to the Vice-President, the performance of the gold sector underscores its role as a key engine for job creation, revenue generation and investment attraction in Ghana. The Ahafo North Mine itself involves a capital investment exceeding US$1 billion, she said, marking Ghana’s capacity to draw in substantial global mining investment.
For Ghana and Africa, this matters because gold remains one of the continent’s most important export earners. In a time of global economic uncertainty and currency volatility, strong gold earnings can support foreign exchange reserves, stabilise national currencies and underpin growth.
The mining sector more broadly also shows strong fiscal contributions: in 2024, producing members of the Ghana Chamber of Mines paid GH¢17.68 billion in payments to government coffers, which included corporate tax, royalties and PAYE contributions. This is part of a wider trend of the industry bolstering Ghana’s public revenue and local economic activity.
Export-wise, Ghana’s gold export revenues have surged – one source reports around US$11.6 billion in 2024, up more than 50 per cent from the prior year. These export earnings accounted for over half of the country’s total exports.
Local gold impact: jobs, regions and downstream benefits
In the case of the Ahafo North Mine, the government emphasises that the investment will generate employment in the Ahafo Region and stimulate community development projects in neighbouring districts. Mining operations often require thousands of direct and indirect jobs, and local procurement of goods and services.
For instance, large-scale producers in Ghana spent over US$3.5 billion on procurement in 2024, and employed more than 11,300 staff directly—with Ghanaians making up over 99 per cent of those jobs.
This means that beyond revenue, gold mining can have tangible local effects in mining regions: improved infrastructure, skills development and wider business activity.
Although the GH¢88.1 billion GDP figure is striking, it is worth noting that independent verification of exactly how this number was calculated is limited in public domain. The organisations tracking Ghana’s economy caution that while the mining sector is significant, claims that gold alone contributes over 40 per cent of Ghana’s GDP have been debunked.
Furthermore, Ghana’s mining industry faces headwinds: the informal and artisanal mining sector remains opaque, and illegal mining (“galamsey”) continues to impose environmental and fiscal costs.
Ghana’s new regulatory reforms (for example through the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod)) aim to formalise small-scale mining, increase value retention and reduce smuggling, but implementation and oversight remain crucial.
Also, heavy reliance on commodity exports means that Ghana’s economy remains vulnerable to swings in global gold prices and demand. Economists stress the importance of diversifying away from raw minerals to refine and add value locally.
For Ghana, such strong numbers reaffirm gold’s role as a linchpin of the economy—and signal to investors that the sector remains robust. For Africa at large, Ghana’s experience shows how resource-rich countries can leverage natural endowments for economic and social gains—but also the importance of pairing extraction with governance, local participation and risk-management.
When gold exports accelerate, foreign-exchange incomes rise, which can help monitory stability, improve debt‐service capacity and enable investment in priority sectors like education and health.
The GH¢88.1 billion contribution of the gold industry to Ghana’s GDP—alongside US$11.2 billion in exports—highlights the strategic weight of the sector.
Yet, translating those headline numbers into broad-based, sustainable development remains the challenge. The key will be ensuring mining growth benefits communities, strengthens local value-chains, and is accompanied by sound regulation so that Ghana’s gold resources deliver as much for its people as they do for its balance sheet.
