Policy think tank IMANI Africa, through associate and technology policy expert Sitsofe Mensah, has raised a major public alarm following the complete failure of the Minerals Commission and the Lands Commission to disclose their FY2025 financial performance accounts in the latest State Ownership Report.
The twin custodial bodies tasked with managing the sovereign physical acreage and mineral wealth of the country operated entirely in the dark, failing to meet basic statutory reporting requirements.
This glaring transparency deficit marks an abrupt departure from their historical track record of routine regulatory compliance, signalling a deep breakdown in public oversight over key national assets.
“The 2025 State Ownership Report exposes a massive governance vacuum. The Minerals Commission and the Lands Commission, the twin institutional custodians of Ghana’s natural endowment, completely failed to submit their FY2025 financial accounts for public disclosure. Both agencies had maintained a consistent record of statutory compliance in previous years, yet they were singled out—alongside Ghana Telecommunications Company Limited (Telecel)—for an outright failure to provide their financials.”
Sitsofe Mensah,
According to figures from the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), neither agency submitted audited financial statements or draft accounts, filed statutory employment and quarterly operational data, or executed an Annual Performance Contract for FY2025.
This institutional non-compliance coincides with an unprecedented period of extractives revenue generation, creating a critical oversight gap where public assets are managed without mandatory administrative accountability.
By withholding these foundational operational metrics, the two major land and mineral gatekeepers have effectively fenced off vital public financial data from national balance-sheet accounting, undermining public trust and democratic monitoring.
The High Stakes of Mineral and Acreage Opaque Governance
The timing of this administrative blackout could not be more critical for the national economy. In FY2025, gold production and exports alone generated an unprecedented USD 20.98 billion in foreign exchange, constituting 67.43 percent of total export proceeds.
Because the Minerals Commission directly oversees lease agreements, mining concessions, and royalty structures governing these huge extractive inflows, its refusal to open its accounting books leaves massive public value unmonitored.
Simultaneously, the Lands Commission exercises exclusive domain over state land titles and public acreage allocation.
When these watchtowers over national territory and sub-soil resources operate without financial visibility, the risk of misallocated revenue and unchecked administrative discretion grows significantly.
Institutional Mechanics of the Oversight Failure
The failure to execute an Annual Performance Contract with SIGA leaves state regulatory bodies operating without clear, binding targets or measurable metrics.
When public custodians operate without executed performance contracts, citizens and oversight bodies cannot evaluate whether administrative decisions prioritize national development or institutional self-interest.
Furthermore, omitting employment data and quarterly performance updates deprives policy analysts of basic operational information.
This breakdown in compliance by former benchmark institutions threatens to normalize financial non-disclosure across the public sector, setting a dangerous precedent for other state-owned enterprises.
Urgent Regulatory Reforms Required to Restore Transparency
Rectifying this governance deficit requires immediate legislative and administrative intervention to re-establish statutory compliance.
Government must enforce strict legal sanctions against non-compliant public authorities, making future budgetary allocations contingent on the timely submission of audited accounts and quarterly reports to SIGA.
Establishing independent oversight panels to audit natural resource management will help protect state assets from political and administrative interference.
Restoring mandatory financial reporting is not merely a bureaucratic requirement, but a fundamental prerequisite for ensuring that extractives wealth benefits the broader public rather than hidden interests.
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