Chamber of Mines CEO
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ing. Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, has called for a decisive national shift from local procurement to large-scale local manufacturing within the mining supply chain.
Speaking at the opening of the 2025 Mining Industry Marketing Expo (MIME) at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) in Tarkwa, Ing. Ashigbey said Ghana’s mining sector must move beyond simply buying goods locally to producing them competitively at scale.
He noted that mining companies spent about US$3.5 billion on goods and services in 2024—representing nearly half of mineral revenue—showing strong local participation but also highlighting the need to translate demand into domestic production capacity.
“Buying bolts and overalls locally is a start; building the factories and technical capabilities to manufacture those bolts and stitch those overalls at scale is the destination,” he said.
Ing. Ashigbey urged collaboration among government, academia, financiers, and industry to establish a globally competitive mining equipment manufacturing ecosystem in Ghana.
He outlined three key priorities: scaling up production of high-value components such as steel parts and reagents, improving financing and standards infrastructure, and strengthening skills development through partnerships with institutions like UMaT.
He added that mining should serve as an engine for industrialisation, not merely a revenue source. In 2024, the sector repatriated nearly US$5 billion through the Bank of Ghana and commercial banks and sold over 358,000 ounces of gold to boost the country’s reserves—proof, he said, of the industry’s stabilising role in the economy.
Describing MIME 2025 as a strategic platform to drive innovation and local partnerships, Ing. Ashigbey reaffirmed the Chamber’s commitment to working with all stakeholders to “convert policy into factories, contracts into careers, and mineral revenue into made-in-Ghana industrial strength.”
