President John Mahama says value addition must become the foundation of Ghana’s development, urging investment in manufacturing, agro processing and mineral beneficiation to move the economy up the value chain.
Addressing the Ghana Diaspora Town Hall in London, he laid out a vision to turn Ghana from an exporter of raw materials into a modern industrial economy built on local production. He argued that shipping out raw commodities only to buy back finished goods enriches other countries at Ghana’s expense. “That model cannot deliver sustainable prosperity,” he said.
Mahama used the mineral sector to make the point, noting that Ghana exports raw gold, manganese and bauxite for processing abroad, then imports the higher value finished products at a premium, creating jobs in other economies rather than at home. He called for a deliberate national shift up the value chain across manufacturing, agro processing, mineral beneficiation, fertiliser and petrochemical production, food processing and strategic industrial parks.
Energy formed one plank of that agenda. He said Ghana would begin refining its own crude locally again from June, delivering a parcel of Ghanaian crude to a domestic refinery as part of a plan to build a fully integrated petroleum value chain spanning extraction, refining, storage, petrochemicals and distribution. Reporting from the event identifies the facility as the Tema Oil Refinery, and the push is backed by fresh upstream investment, including about US$1.5 billion from ENI in the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) field.
Local processing, the president said, would let Ghana capture more value from its resources, retain foreign exchange, strengthen supply chains and create jobs, with the broader industrial drive aimed at positioning the country as a competitive manufacturing and processing hub in Africa.
