Privatisation Policy and the Ghanaian Gold Mining Industry

Abstract

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) help ailing developing economies to address their debts and economic crises. To receive this help, however, these international financial institutions (IFI s) have in the past demanded reforms, termed Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP). One of the SAP policies has been the privatisation of state-owned enterprises (SOE s), which Ghana embraced and implemented from 1983. This article evaluates Ghana’s privatisation of the Ghanaian gold mining industry (the second-largest foreign-exchange earner and major beneficiary of the policy). Using predominantly academic and popular literature, data from the Ghana Chamber of Mines and insider accounts, this study reveals that the policy has resulted in benefits (organisational and national gains) and costs (social and national costs). The article calls on the World Bank/IMF and the gold mining industry to renew their commitment to the recognition of the social and environmental benefits to the citizens.