Claim: The former New Patriotic Party Chairperson, Freddie Blay, has claimed that gold contributes over 40% to Ghana’s economy.
Verdict: False. Data from the Ghana Statistical Service’s 2024 Q3 GDP report shows that the services sector is the largest contributor to GDP, while the industry sector, which includes gold, accounts for 32.6%. Within this sector, gold’s contribution is significantly less.
Full Text
The mining of precious minerals, particularly gold, became a contentious issue in late 2024 due to the extensive environmental devastation it caused. Ghanaians and various stakeholders, including organised labour, intensified calls for a temporary ban on mining and the revocation of mining permits in forest reserves.
However, in a recent interview on GHOne Television, the former New Patriotic Party Chairperson Freddie Blay claimed that gold contributes over 40% to Ghana’s economy. Part of the interview was centred on the fight against galamsey in 2024. A snippet of the interview was posted on X, garnering over 49,000 views.
“Galamsey was not just a policy to save our waters. It is a policy against the reality of the day. And let me be honest with you, the reality is that over 40 per cent of our economy depends on gold at this point in time,” Mr Blay stated.
How accurate is this assertion?
Verification
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the primary measure of a country’s economic performance.
DUBAWA investigated the claim using data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and found it false. The conclusion was drawn from the GSS GDP 3rd Quarter Report of 2024, the most recent report available. The next report is scheduled for publication on March 19, 2025 (see page 1).
According to the report, the services sector remains the largest contributor to Ghana’s economy in the third quarter of 2024, accounting for 42.9% of GDP at basic prices. The GDP contributions of the industry and agriculture sectors were 32.6% and 24.5%, respectively.
As part of the mining and quarrying sub-sector within the industry sector, gold does not account for 40% of GDP. The industry’s contribution was 32.6%, and gold alone cannot exceed this figure. Additionally, the report highlights that the year-on-year real GDP growth rate for the mining and quarrying sub-sector, which includes gold, was 17.1% in 2024 Q3 (see page 11 of the report).
Source: GSS
However, Mr Blay’s “over 40%” figure likely refers to the 47.4% projected contribution of the mining and quarrying subsector to the economy.
Conclusion
The claim that gold contributes over 40% to Ghana’s economy is false. Data from the Ghana Statistical Service’s 2024 Q3 GDP report shows that the services sector is the largest contributor to GDP, while the industry sector, which includes gold, accounts for 32.6%. Within this sector, gold’s contribution is significantly less than the claimed figure.