A governance, security, and international relations expert, Dr. David Agbee has submitted a formal policy proposal to President John Dramani Mahama, the Cabinet, and all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies, calling for the state to decline renewal of Gold Fields Ghana Limited’s mining lease over the Tarkwa Gold Fields when it expires in 2027.
Dr. Agbee has urged the state to assume sovereign, majority ownership of one of Africa’s most productive gold mines.
The proposal, titled “Sovereign Ownership and State-Led Development of the Tarkwa Gold
Fields,” lands at a pivotal moment: Gold Fields Ghana Limited has formally applied for a 20
year extension of its concession.
The request that has drawn pointed opposition from civil society groups, academics, and community advocates, including the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
“Ghana’s gold must build Ghana’s future,” Dr. Agbee said. “This is a generational moment the moment when the people of Ghana, through their elected government, can decide that the gold beneath Tarkwa soil belongs, in the fullest and most meaningful sense, to Ghana.”
The Tarkwa concession, located in Ghana’s Western Region, has produced gold for more than a hundred years. Gold Fields Limited, a South African multinational, has operated the site since 1993, transforming it into a large-scale open-pit operation that today produces between 427,000 and 550,000 troy ounces of gold annually and employs more than 7,000 Ghanaians.
Despite this scale, the proposal argues, Tarkwa and its surrounding communities continue to experience deteriorating roads, inadequate water and healthcare access, agricultural land loss, and environmental degradation from mine tailings.
Ghana currently captures only a 5% royalty on revenue, alongside variable corporate tax receipts and a minority dividend stake through the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) a structure Dr. Agbee describes as a fraction of the true value extracted from the country’s non-renewable mineral wealth.
“The fiscal revenues Ghana receives do not adequately compensate the nation for the permanent depletion of its gold reserves,” the proposal states. “This structural deficit must be decisively corrected.”
At the heart of the proposal is a public-private partnership structure under which the Government of Ghana acting through MIIF or a newly created Ghana Gold Corporation (GGC) would hold a 60% equity stake in Tarkwa’s capital assets and mining infrastructure, including its mining fleet, processing plants, and power and water systems.
The remaining 40% would be opened through a competitive process to qualified Ghanaian investors, pension funds, and strategic foreign partners, who would fund day-to-day operating costs and bring technical expertise.
State capital for the acquisition would be drawn from sources including the Ghana Heritage Fund currently valued at approximately USD 1.376 billion — the Ghana Stabilisation Fund, sovereign bonds backed by projected gold revenues, and concessional financing from development institutions such as the African Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation.
Dr. Agbee grounds the proposal in Article 257(6) of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, which vests all minerals in their natural state in the President, in trust for the people of Ghana, as well as the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) and the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 2018 (Act 978).
“This is not reckless resource nationalism,” Dr. Agbee said. “It is a thoughtful, legally sound, and commercially structured path to sovereign ownership one in which Ghana takes its rightful place not as a landlord receiving rent, but as an owner building generational wealth.”
The proposal points to Botswana majority state ownership of Debswana, Chile CODELCO, and Norway sovereign management of its oil wealth through Equinor and its Government Pension Fund as evidence that state equity participation and commercially efficient resource management are not mutually exclusive.
Zambia and Tanzania, it notes, have likewise moved to increase state participation in their copper and gold sectors. As Africa’s leading gold producer, the proposal argues, Ghana is well placed to set a continental example.
The proposal calls for a mandatory Community Development Fund, ring-fenced at not less than 3% of gross gold revenue, governed by a Trustees Board with formal representation from traditional authorities and community groups in Tarkwa.
It also proposes a binding Environmental Management and Rehabilitation Plan, developed with the Environmental Protection Authority, including an independently held rehabilitation bond to guarantee funding for mine closure and land restoration regardless of future operating performance.
“This structural injustice is not merely a moral failure,” the proposal warns. “It constitutes a
political risk, a source of community unrest, and a long-term threat to the social licence to mine. Any successor arrangement must reverse this historic inequity.”
The proposal lays out a three-phase implementation plan running from 2026 to 2028: establishing a High-Level Tarkwa Transition Committee under the Office of the President and enacting, enabling legislation in Phase One; finalising asset acquisition, onboarding private investors, and completing a full operational handover with “zero interruption” to production in Phase Two; and full operationalisation of the Ghana Gold Corporation, including the first Community Development Fund disbursements, from 2028 onward.
The proposal also recommends Ghana retain independent international legal counsel on mining law and investor-state dispute matters before issuing any formal notice to Gold Fields.
Dr. Agbee describes the 2027 lease expiration as “a generational moment” rather than a routine administrative event, and is urging the Presidency and Parliament to act with urgency.
“Ghana has the constitutional mandate, the legal instruments, the institutional capacity through MIIF and the Minerals Commission, and the moral authority rooted in decades of unfulfilled promises to Tarkwa communities to act decisively,” he said. “The time to act is now.”
