BoG boss calls for shift from raw exports to value addition

Bank of Ghana Governor Dr. Johnson Asiama has urged a national rethink of Ghana’s export model, stressing the need to move from exporting raw materials to processing and adding value locally.

He said Ghana must process more of its gold, oil, and cocoa to reduce its economic vulnerabilities and achieve long-term stability.

Speaking in Washington, DC on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings, Dr. Asiama said the country’s export basket remains dominated by primary commodities, making the economy highly susceptible to global price shocks.

“We have a mixture of exports. There’s gold, but then there’s also cocoa. Cocoa is doing well. And then the remittances, we have other non-traditional exports as well,” he said.

“However, given that they are all commodities, primary commodities essentially, there’s the challenge that we have to do more and more processing,” he added.

Dr. Asiama explained that sustained economic growth cannot come from exporting unprocessed natural resources.

He therefore called for deliberate investment in value addition, particularly in the three key sectors of gold, oil, and cocoa.

“I sense that if we can do greater processing on three fronts—gold, oil, and cocoa—that will reduce the vulnerabilities that we hold as a country, and I believe that the government is working hard on that,” he noted.

The Governor also highlighted efforts to expand Ghana’s domestic gold refining capacity. He said several refineries are ready to begin processing part of the country’s gold output to ensure that not all of it is exported in its raw form.

“There is talk about reviving some of the refineries…We have a couple of gold refineries currently in town. They are just about to start refining part of the gold so that we don’t have to export the entire dore gold,” he said.

Dr. Asiama observed that promoting domestic processing would strengthen economic resilience, create jobs, and reduce the nation’s exposure to global market instability.