The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr. Audrey Smock Amoah, has called for a new era of fairness, transparency, and sustainability in the governance of West Africa’s natural resources.
She made this call at the opening of the West Africa Conference on Equity in Extraction, held in Accra from 14th to 16th October 2025
She noted that the continent is richly endowed with minerals such as gold, bauxite, manganese, and diamonds, as well as emerging critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel.
Citing data from the African Development Bank and the World Bank, she said that natural resources make a substantial contribution to West Africa’s GDP and export earnings, yet the benefits remain unevenly distributed adding that, those living at top resource-rich lands are often the most marginalized, bearing the burden of environmental destruction while receiving the least benefit.”
Dr. Amoah referenced His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama’s 2015 address at the Africa Mining Vision Conference in Addis Ababa, where he emphasized that Africa’s natural resources must be a blessing, not a curse.
“We must add value, create jobs, and ensure that our people benefit directly from the wealth beneath our soil,” she reiterated, stressing that this message remains as relevant today as it was a decade ago.
Deborah Narkie Nartey, ISD
