MIIF Showcases Ghana’s Local Content and Participation Framework

The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) showcases Ghana’s effort in promoting local content in Ghana’s mining sector.

Speaking at a pre-conference session titled “Local Procurement Measurement and Management: Models from EITI Countries and Beyond”, ahead of the 2026 Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Global Conference in Brussels, Belgium, MIIF’s Chief Technical & Operations Officer, Mr. Kwabena Barning, shared Ghana’s progress and priorities as practical lessons for strengthening local content across resource-rich countries.

Showcasing Ghana’s Leadership

Mr Barning said local content in the mining sector is understood through three pillars: the localisation of key roles, local procurement and local manufacturing. He noted that Ghana has recorded considerable success in the first pillar, with Ghanaians increasingly occupying key technical and managerial positions across the industry.

On local procurement, he explained that the current priority is to encourage Ghanaian companies to participate more fully in mining supply chains. Strengthening their capacity to supply goods and services to the sector would increase domestic participation and help retain more value within the Ghanaian economy.

For the third pillar, local manufacturing, Mr Barning stressed the need to focus on products in which Ghana has a competitive advantage, taking into account factors such as the availability of raw materials, reliable power and other essential inputs. He shared Ghana’s approach and progress as practical lessons that other countries could learn from and adapt to their own circumstances. Regarding access to financing, the lending institutions are being encouraged to partner with MIIF in derisking projects and making funding available to expand local manufacturing.

Also speaking at the session, Dr Steve Manteaw, Co-Chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), called for closer collaboration between mining companies, standard and regulatory institutions and local businesses to help domestic suppliers meet industry standards and technical requirements through continuous testing and improvement.

Participants highlighted the importance of reliable data in measuring the effectiveness of local content policies. Representative from Senegal shared approaches to tracking local procurement and measuring domestic business participation in mining supply chains.

Discussions further emphasised the need to distinguish between locally manufactured goods and imported products supplied through local companies, as well as to account for differences in procurement at community, national and regional levels.

Participating countries were encouraged to align local procurement policies with their broader industrial, trade and investment strategies to strengthen domestic production, create employment and retain a greater value within the economy.

MIIF’s Participation at the EITI Global Conference

MIIF’s engagement formed part of broader discussions at the 2026 EITI Global Conference, held on October 8–9 under the theme “Transparency for Shared Prosperity”. Co-hosted by the Government of Belgium and the European Commission, the conference is EITI’s flagship global gathering, held every three years. The conference brought together more than 1,000 stakeholders from over 50 countries, including government representatives, extractive industry companies, civil society organisations (CSOs), investors and development partners, to exchange experiences and advance transparency and accountability in the management of oil, gas and mineral resources.

The session, “Transparency for Investment: De-risking Responsible Mining,” examined how financial and technical cooperation supported by transparency, can strengthen investor confidence, accountability and resilient mineral supply chains. As an investment institution seeking to attract co-investors, MIIF resonates that credible investment decisions must be backed by rigorous due diligence, including verification of beneficial ownership, assessment of environmental and social performance, and scrutiny of other material governance and sustainability risks.

“State Participation in Extractives: Ownership Models, Partnerships and Transparency,” highlighted how resource-rich countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Indonesia balance state ownership and partnerships to maximise value from their extractive sectors while strengthening transparency, accountability and fiscal resilience. In Ghana, MIIF serves as the government’s foremost investment arm across the mining value chain, advancing state participation through equity interests and promoting co-investment opportunities with investors. Other countries are pursuing similar models, each offering distinct lessons. In Papua New Guinea, for example, participation model is based on revenue or profit-sharing.

MIIF’s participation in the conference underscores the importance of connecting transparent and accountable resource governance with tangible economic outcomes. Its contribution to the local procurement discussions highlighted the need for Ghana to move beyond supplying the mining industry towards building domestic manufacturing capacity, creating skilled employment and retaining more value from its mineral resources for the benefit of its citizens.