Ghana will process at least half of its cocoa beans locally from the 2026–2027 season while tightening control over small-scale gold exports, President John Dramani Mahama has told the Ghanaian community in Kingston, Jamaica.
Mahama presented the measures as part of a broader push to dismantle an economic model that exports raw commodities, surrenders industrial jobs abroad and leaves Ghana with only a limited share of the wealth generated from its natural resources.
Colonial trade model under challenge
Addressing the Ghanaian community in Kingston on August 3 during his official visit to Jamaica, Mahama said Ghana’s economy remained shaped by a colonial structure in which raw materials were extracted and shipped overseas for processing.
He cited cocoa beans exported to Belgium and the Netherlands, where they were converted into chocolate, cocoa drinks and industrial ingredients before being sold back to producing countries at much higher prices.
‘We just do extractive work and then ship off all those exports for them to be finished somewhere,’ Mahama said.
Cocoa financing limits local processing
Mahama identified Ghana’s traditional cocoa-financing system as one of the main obstacles to domestic processing.
Under the arrangement, international traders advanced funds at the beginning of the crop season to finance purchases from farmers, with cocoa beans serving as collateral. Ghana was therefore required to export the beans to repay the lenders.
The president said the Ghana Cocoa Board Bill would allow Cocobod to raise bonds domestically and use cedi financing to purchase cocoa from farmers. The bill was laid before Parliament on July 31, 2026.
The proposed shift builds on efforts to replace foreign-backed cocoa purchasing with domestic financing.
‘When we do that, the cocoa belongs to us. It doesn’t belong to the traders,’ Mahama said.
Half of cocoa to remain in Ghana
Mahama said at least 50 percent of Ghana’s cocoa would be processed locally from the coming season, leaving only the remaining half available for export as raw beans.
The government had previously directed that a minimum of 50 percent should be processed domestically from the 2026–2027 crop season, alongside plans to revive the state-owned Cocoa Processing Company.
Mahama said Ghana’s longer-term ambition was to process its entire crop and export higher-value products such as cocoa liquor, powder and butter.
The policy also places Ghana within a broader African drive to strengthen cocoa processing and retain more revenue in producing countries.
GoldBod tightens export control
On gold, Mahama concentrated on formalising purchases, recording exports and ensuring that foreign-exchange earnings returned to Ghana.
He said the previous trading system allowed buyers to purchase and export gold without fully recording the quantities involved, preventing the country from receiving the full benefit of the mineral.
Mahama said small-scale gold exports rose from about 64 tonnes in 2024 to 104 tonnes in 2025, generating roughly $10bn.
GoldBod’s audited 2025 figures put artisanal and small-scale gold exports at 63.6 tonnes in 2024 and 104 tonnes worth approximately $10.8bn in 2025, with almost all shipments channelled through formal routes.
The performance has placed artisanal gold at the centre of Ghana’s foreign-exchange strategy.
Control opens beneficiation debate
Mahama’s Kingston remarks focused on formalising gold exports rather than announcing a new downstream-processing programme.
However, tighter control could support Ghana’s separate efforts to expand domestic refining and eventually retain more value through jewellery manufacturing and other gold-based industries.
The government’s GoldBod refining arrangements show how improved traceability and foreign-exchange capture could become the foundation for wider beneficiation.
Mahama’s central message was that political sovereignty would remain incomplete unless Ghana gained greater control over how its resources were financed, processed and marketed.
