Ghana is preparing to apply for membership of BRICS after President John Mahama’s Cabinet backed the move, opening a new front in Accra’s effort to widen its economic partnerships without turning its back on longstanding allies.
The decision does not put Ghana inside BRICS. It begins what could be a lengthy diplomatic process in which Accra will have to win support from existing members. But it also gives a clearer sense of where Mahama wants Ghana to sit in a world where economic and political influence is increasingly spread across competing centres of power.
Cabinet backs formal application
Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced Cabinet’s decision to pursue a formal BRICS application during an October 6 joint press briefing in Accra with India’s External Affairs Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
‘The Cabinet of President John Dramani Mahama has decided that Ghana should put in a formal application to join BRICS,’ Ablakwa said.
The government is now preparing the application and has begun sounding out support among members, starting with India, which holds the BRICS presidency in 2026.
Jaishankar’s response was encouraging, but measured.
‘Obviously, this is an issue of collective consideration. So we have to see how that goes forward,’ he said.
That qualification matters. BRICS operates by consensus on major decisions involving its full membership, meaning no single member can deliver Ghana’s admission.
Ghana wants more room to manoeuvre
For Ablakwa, the attraction of BRICS is not that it offers Ghana a substitute for its established relationships. It is that it could give the country more options.
‘BRICS offers us that opportunity to have options in development, and you want to have options,’ he said.
He was equally clear that Ghana was not preparing to abandon the relationships it already has.
‘We are not going to walk away from our traditional partners who value that relationship, but we must have new friends,’ Ablakwa said.
That may be the simplest way to understand the proposed application. Ghana is not publicly presenting BRICS as a choice between East and West. Accra is trying to widen its room to negotiate with both.
The government continues to pursue Western capital and partnerships. Ghana and Britain recently agreed a new Growth Partnership alongside a £101m Takoradi shipyard investment.
At the same time, Mahama’s administration wants deeper economic relationships with countries including India, China and Brazil, while seeking a stronger voice in institutions associated with the Global South. That broader shift comes as BRICS expands its influence within an evolving Global South order.
Resource sovereignty shapes Ghana’s case
There is a harder economic calculation behind the diplomacy.
Ghana has spent decades exporting gold, cocoa and other commodities while much of the processing, manufacturing and higher-value activity takes place elsewhere.
Mahama’s government wants to change that equation.
‘We want resource sovereignty where we can be treated as equal partners,’ Ablakwa said. ‘We don’t want a situation where we continue to export raw materials.’
The argument closely mirrors Mahama’s call for Global South countries to move beyond the raw-export economic model and retain more of the value generated from their resources.
The same thinking sits behind Ghana’s 24-Hour Economy and Accelerated Export Development Programme, which seeks to connect agriculture, processing, manufacturing, logistics and exports more closely.
From Accra’s perspective, BRICS could provide another route to capital, technology, markets and political partnerships that support that transition.
Membership would guarantee none of those benefits. What it could do is widen the field in which Ghana tries to secure them.
India becomes central to the bid
India is an obvious first stop in Ghana’s diplomatic campaign.
Relations between Accra and New Delhi have deepened since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to Ghana in 2025, with both governments exploring wider cooperation in pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, agriculture, technology and investment.
During Jaishankar’s visit, Mahama said Ghana’s exports to India had risen from about $3bn to nearly $7bn while he courted greater Indian investment in pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing.
The push reflects a wider effort to make Ghana a production and investment base rather than simply a market for imported goods.
That strategy extends beyond India. Mahama has also been positioning Ghana as a gateway into the wider AfCFTA market, hoping to attract companies seeking access to consumers beyond Ghana itself.
India cannot deliver BRICS membership on its own. But as the bloc’s current chair and one of its founding powers, its diplomatic support would matter.
Ghana could break new ground
BRICS now has 11 full members — Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates — according to India’s official account of the grouping under its 2026 presidency.
Nigeria and Uganda are among the African countries in the separate partner-country category. Nigeria’s admission as a BRICS partner strengthened the bloc’s West African footprint, but the region still has no full member.
If Ghana eventually secures admission, it would become the first.
The significance would stretch beyond symbolism. Ghana would gain a seat in a grouping seeking a larger role in debates over global trade, development finance, payment systems and reform of international institutions. That agenda has also fuelled debate over how BRICS economies are developing financial arrangements around the dollar rather than simply replacing it.
But that remains some distance away.
Accra must first submit its application, convince existing members and demonstrate why Ghana’s admission would strengthen a grouping that has already expanded considerably.
For Mahama, however, the wider policy is becoming easier to read.
