Ghana forwent an estimated US$6.56 billion in potential mining revenue in 2025 relative to Botswana's state-participation benchmark, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said in a policy brief launched in Accra.
In A Reexamination of the Low Government Revenue Mobilization in Ghana, IFS executive director Dr Said Boakye said mining produced US$13.40 billion of value added in 2025 while the state took US$1.60 billion, or 11.9%. Between 2019 and 2023, government mining revenue averaged 15% of sector value added in Ghana against 60.9% in Botswana.
Applying that 60.9% rate to Ghana's 2025 mining value added would have yielded about US$8.16 billion for the state — US$6.56 billion more than actual receipts — according to accounts of the briefing by 3News and MyJoyOnline.
Boakye attributed the gap to Botswana's joint-venture model versus Ghana's concession system, in which private companies control extraction and operational data. He urged the government to take direct equity stakes in mining ahead of the 2027 Budget.
Beyond mining, the brief reiterated that Ghana's total revenue and grants stood at 15.7% of GDP in 2022, ranking 18th of 25 sub-Saharan African countries surveyed and below the 20.1% regional average. Matching that average in 2025 would have raised total revenue and grants to GHS 288.26 billion — GHS 63.38 billion (about US$5.05 billion) above actual receipts of GHS 224.88 billion.
The reports also cited an April 2026 Ghana Revenue Authority disclosure that misdeclared imports had cost more than GHS 11 billion at the ports before a new customs platform.
StatsGH previously covered parts of the same IFS revenue-mobilisation briefing; this article focuses on the mining value-added comparison newly emphasised in today's multi-outlet reports. The US$6.56 billion figure is an IFS counterfactual, not an audited loss.
Sources: 3News; MyJoyOnline.