Despite Ghana being one of the largest exporters of gold in the world, the Ghanaian government sees less than 1.7 percent of global returns from its gold.
This is because an astounding 98.3 percent of the country’s gold is managed by multinational corporations, according to a report by the Bank of Ghana, the country’s central bank.
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Of the $5.2 billion worth of gold produced in Ghana from 1990 to 2002, just $87.3 million returned to the country through corporate income taxes and royalty payments, TandFonline reports.
When global lenders like the International Monetary Fund blame the problem on bad governance and corruption, it confuses the debate on how Ghana can better use its natural resources to address its challenges as a developing nation.
The government is blamed for poverty, poor healthcare and inadequate education while multinational corporations cash in on the vast amount of Ghana’s gold exports.
Corruption may exist at the government level but that argument is only focused on revenues that come from 1.7 percent of exports while ignoring what happens to the other 98.3 percent.
Ghana’s natural wealth is being stolen by these firms, according to the bank report. But instead of focusing on this, global lenders choose to blame corrupt government officials. They ignore the plundering of natural wealth and in some cases support the multinational companies through financing, CommonDreams reports.
Fifty-four years after Ghana achieved independence from Great Britain, a new form of colonialism appears to exist.
The country relies on multinational corporations for the infrastructure to extract value from gold, allowing those companies to keep the vast majority of revenues produced from Ghanaian gold, said Gyekye Tanoh of the Third World Network in an interview with Tricontinental.
Third World Network is an international research and advocacy organization involved in issues relating to development and developing countries.
A system in place since the 1980s that forced countries to rely on raw material exports and to become dependent on foreign buyers leaves countries like Ghana with a small fraction of the wealth taken from their own land, Tanoh said.
Good governance and dealing with corruption will not solve the problem,
Tanoh added. It only serves as a diversion from the fact that multinational corporations are stealing Ghana’s wealth.
