Ghana’s Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) Working to Add Value to Raw Bauxite Resources

Ghana’s President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has established the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) to add value to the country’s raw bauxite resources and phase out the export of the natural resource in the short to medium term.

Speaking at the Natural Resource Stakeholders’ Dialogue, Akufo-Addo noted that Ghana had not always done well in negotiations with the countries that exploit her natural resources, partly due to corruption, incompetence, and political instability. He stated that Ghana had failed to put in place the necessary framework to establish the highest ends of the value chains of the extractive industry.

Akufo-Addo emphasized that the real value of natural resources lies in their value addition. While the extractive sector has been the largest tax base of the country for several years, Ghana has not benefited optimally from these resources due to its overdependence on the export of raw products. With an estimated bauxite resource base of over 900 million metric tonnes, Akufo-Addo noted that this sector can serve as an anchor for the country’s industrialization if it continues to pursue value-added policies.

Through GIADEC, established in 2018, the government is working to ensure value addition in the bauxite resources through refining, smelting, aluminium production, and production of other downstream aluminium products. With the implementation of the four-project agenda of GIADEC, production is expected to optimize in the upstream industry, spurring production and job creation in the downstream sector.

All in all, Ghana’s government is taking significant steps towards value addition and local content participation in the natural resources sector to derive optimal benefits from these God-given resources. The mining and refining of natural resources, coupled with value addition, will provide much-needed employment and revenue for Ghana’s economy.