Resource governance expert Dr Steve Manteaw is urging Ghana to merge its petroleum and mineral revenues into a single sovereign wealth fund that lends to local extractive firms.
Manteaw said the country should revive earlier proposals to combine the two revenue streams under a new law, which he called a National Extractive Revenues Management Act. The aim, he stressed, would not be consumption or political spending but commercial lending to Ghanaian companies in mining and allied industries.
He argued that Ghana’s petroleum savings, now largely held in low yielding foreign instruments, should be brought home and used to finance domestic enterprise and infrastructure. He tied the idea to Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson, who he said wants to repatriate the funds to lend to local businesses.
The premise rests on weak returns. The Ghana Petroleum Funds (GPFs) have earned roughly $94.9 million on about $1.46 billion since 2011, an average of around one percent a year. In the 2026 Budget, Forson said part of the funds would be channelled into the domestic market, starting with commercially viable energy infrastructure.
Under Manteaw’s model, miners such as Gold Fields Ghana, Adamus Resources, the Damang mine and Asante Gold Corporation could borrow domestically on commercial terms to fund operations and expansion. That, he said, would cut reliance on external financing and deepen local participation, though he was clear that foreign capital would remain essential.
To shield the fund from political interference, Manteaw proposed handing its lending and loan management to an independent, reputable private financial institution chosen through open competition. The arrangement, he said, would insulate the system from changes of government and reduce politicised allocation.
He also called for a consortium of Ghanaian mining firms drawn from across the political divide to bid jointly for mineral concessions, a step he believes would protect projects from political targeting and keep the sector stable.
While backing greater local participation, Manteaw cautioned against decisions driven by sentiment. “It must be strategic, not emotional,” he said, urging policymakers to balance domestic resource mobilisation with continued foreign direct investment.
His proposal, in effect, would shift Ghana’s resource wealth from passive saving toward active financing of enterprise, jobs and long term industrial growth.
