Entrepreneurship, poverty and sustainability: Critical reflections on the formalisation of small-scale mining in Ghana

In sub-Saharan Africa, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – low-tech, labour-intensive mineral extraction and processing – provides direct employment to tens of millions of people. Most, however, operate without the requisite permits to mine legally due to a shortage of untitled land, as well as bureaucratic and costly registration processes. This article contributes to this discussion, drawing on fresh evidence from Ghana, the location of one of the largest and most dynamic ASM economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Here, it is explained, there is a sizable gap between what the government believes ASM is, and what it actually is. This misdiagnosis has spawned a regulatory apparatus that has proved to be a formidable barrier for ASM operators who are attempting to transition to the formal economy. But rather than highlighting this oversight, the media, government officials and donors have focused mainly on the negative aspects of the sector that policy has ‘created’, including its environmental footprint, poor health and safety record, and numerous social ‘ills’. The attention paid to these ‘expressions’ of ASM’s informality and its unsustainable growth trajectory could potentially derail efforts to formalize a sector which, if adequately supported, could catalyze much-needed economic development in one of the world’s poorest regions.