The Minority Caucus in Parliament has punched holes in President John Dramani Mahama’s remarks, which suggested it was time for Ghanaians to own gold mines.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Gold Board, July 8, 2025, Mahama stated, “We are discovering new minerals, and Ghanaians must be the first beneficiaries of these blessings,” he declared. “Gold is just one example.”
“The time has come for Ghanaians to own gold mines—to produce gold for export and ensure that the wealth generated benefits the nation directly”, he added.
John Mahama noted, “For centuries, Ghana has been blessed bountifully with natural resources, but we lacked the human capital, the financial resources, and the technology needed to develop them effectively.”
“Guggisberg system, foreign companies equipped with capital, technology, and expertise controlled mining operations for decades, with very little coming back to the state.”
Mahama noted that if Ghana is to create lasting prosperity for Ghanaians, the country must take over its natural resources.
“If we are to create lasting prosperity for our people, then Ghana must take greater control over its natural resources. This is not only Ghana’s journey; many countries are now asserting sovereignty over their resources”, President Mahama stressed.
Barely 24 hours after his brother, Ibrahim Mahama, acquired the Black Volta Gold Project, a gold mine, using his Engineers & Planners (E&P) firm, John Mahama made those remark.
Ibrahim Mahama’s Engineers and Planners Company Ltd acquisition of the transformative Black Volta Gold Project has been met with a lot of brouhaha.
The latest to join the commotion is the minority in parliament who are accusing the president of favouring his brother and NDC allies, while mines linked to NPP’s Bernard Antwi-Boasiako were closed.
The minority alleged that Mahama’s invitation may sound like an invitation to all Ghanaians, but it is limited only to the President’s brother and other financiers of the NDC party.
According to the minority, Mahama, since his second coming, has been facilitating his brother Ibrahim’s mining activities to place him in a strategic position in the mining regulatory sector.
The minority in a statement dated July 29, 2025, signed by Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, MP for Mampong and Ranking Member of the Lands and Natural Resources Committee claimed, “Ever since President Mahama began his second stint as the President of Ghana in January 2025, the system has been set up to facilitate his brother Ibrahim’s mining activities, with former E&P employees placed in strategic positions in the mining regulatory sector.
E&P’s former spokesperson, Sammy Gyamfi, is now the CEO of GOLDBOD, the gold purchasing regulator. The top executives of the Minerals Commission are also former employees of E&P and still regard Ibrahim Mahama as their boss.
Other former employees of E&P are strategically positioned in various high offices in Ghana’s extractive sector. This is state capture of the worst kind, engineered and planned by the ‘engineers and planners’ of the NDC Government”.
The minority accused the NDC government of scheming to hand over the country’s resources to the President’s brother.
The minority statement added, “They are once again scheming to hand over the country’s resources to the President’s brother, as the President did in 2016. But this time, it’s more subtle and refined”.
“As the matter is still before the courts, our focus is not to rehash the legalities or illegalities of the Black Volta Gold Project agreement but to draw the public’s attention to the broader picture. To this end, we wish to point out that the Black Volta Gold Project is merely the latest in a pattern of political patronage backing Mr. Ibrahim Mahama, the President’s brother, in his business affairs.
“While E&P denies political patronage by the NDC government, the Ghanaian public is not deceived, and the evidence is irrefutable,” the caucus said.
“While this may sound like an invitation to all Ghanaians, it really is limited only to the President’s brother and other financiers of the NDC party. It clearly does not include gold mining entrepreneurs like Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, aka Chairman Wontumi, whose mines have been shut down on the orders of the Presidency.
This purely political persecution of a miner who employs hundreds of Ghanaians renders the President’s words hollow and hypocritical,” the Minority said.
See the statement below:
