Ahmed Dasana Nantogmah, Chief Operating Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, has renewed calls for Ghana to transition from basic local procurement models to full-scale domestic manufacturing within its extractive industry.
Speaking at a recent mining seminar, Mr. Nantogmah observed that true economic retention remains dangerously low when items purchased locally still heavily depend on imported components, effectively siphoning capital away from the national economy.
Chamber of Mines
“Ahmed Dasana Nantogmah, Chief Operating Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, again called for Ghana to progress from local procurement to domestic manufacturing, observing that little value remains in the country when goods bought locally still rely heavily on imported components.”
“Reputation is communicated, but trust is earned,” Donald Gwira, Vice President of the Institute of Public Relations Ghana said, explaining that trust grows when an organization’s statements, conduct and stakeholder experiences align consistently.
He therefore called for public relations to extend beyond publicity and function as a core part of strategic management.
Retaining Mineral Wealth Through Local Industrial Capacity
The call by Ahmed Dasana Nantogmah underscores a persistent structural vulnerability in Ghana’s mining sector.
While current local content regulations mandate that mining enterprises purchase specific consumables from indigenous suppliers, a substantial portion of these goods consists of assembled foreign parts or rebranded imports.
Consequently, significant financial capital leaves the domestic ecosystem to pay foreign manufacturers, leaving Ghana with negligible economic value addition despite heavy mineral extraction.
By transitioning from mere procurement to full-scale domestic manufacturing, Ghana can cultivate robust upstream industries capable of fabricating heavy machinery, grinding media, chemical reagents, and wear-resistant tools locally.
Capitalizing on this industrial shift requires deliberate policy intervention, capital injection, and technical capacity building to establish factories that convert raw domestic commodities like iron ore and bauxite into high-grade industrial inputs.
A sustained push toward upstream industrialization minimizes supply chain exposure to international market shocks and freight disruptions.
Moreover, localized manufacturing builds a skilled industrial workforce, deepens technology transfers, and significantly expands tax bases for host nations across the West African sub-region.
Aligning Stakeholder Expectations with Corporate Conduct
Supporting the drive for deeper structural reform, Donald Gwira, Vice President of the Institute of Public Relations Ghana and guest speaker at the event, reinforced the necessity of operational transparency and stakeholder alignment.
Mr. Gwira emphasized that strategic communications professionals must be integrated early into organizational decision-making processes.
By engaging early, corporate affairs teams can effectively detect emerging operational issues, understand evolving community expectations, and help shape genuine managerial responses rather than serving as damage-control mechanisms after controversies arise.
In an era where mining operations face heightened environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scrutiny, operational conduct must mirror official corporate statements.
The seminar delivered a clear directive to extractive leaders: under growing public scrutiny, the mining industry’s credibility will ultimately rest not on the sheer size of its economic contribution, but on its tangible capacity to demonstrate concrete, measurable results that uplift local communities.
Strengthening Ghana’s Industrial and Economic Footprint
The imperative for upstream manufacturing is rooted in the structural dynamics of modern extractive economies. Primary extractive activities inherently risk operating as enclave sectors extracting valuable resources while forming minimal linkages with the wider domestic market.
Transitioning from distributor-based procurement to secondary and tertiary manufacturing ensures that a larger percentage of gross mining revenues recirculates within local financial channels.
To realize this vision, collaboration between the Ghana Chamber of Mines, government ministries, and private sector investors is essential.
Developing specialized industrial parks, offering targeted tax incentives for local fabrication plants, and establishing rigorous quality assurance benchmarks will allow domestic suppliers to meet international standards required by major mining conglomerates.
Ultimately, bridging the gap between local procurement mandates and genuine industrial capacity transforms the extractive sector from an export-only enterprise into an engine for broad-based industrialization.
Through strategic management, transparent corporate governance, and targeted industrial investment, Ghana can secure lasting value from its mineral wealth for generations to come.
