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GIADEC established to ensure value-addition to Ghana’s bauxite – Pres
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has explained that the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC), was strategically established to add value to the country’s raw bauxite resources.
This he said was to do away with the export of raw bauxite from the country as well as help develop a complete value chain for the resource.
Nana Akufo-Addo disclosed this at the opening of a two-day Natural Resource Stakeholders’ Dialogue organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources in Accra on Thursday.
The dialogue was on the theme: “Harnessing our Natural Resources Responsibly for our Sustainable Collective Good” and aimed at generating stakeholder discussions on policy suggestions that could be implemented to arrest the phenomenon of illegal mining and logging in the country.
The President asserted that Ghana, over the years had not done well in negotiating well when it comes to its vast mineralresources.
“Ghana has not always done well in negotiations with the countries that exploit her natural resources” and that among other things such as “corruption, incompetence and political instability, the nation has mostly been short-sighted in these negotiations, thus, end up settling for less,” he emphasised.
In addition he said “The country has until recently, failed to put in place the requisite framework which will enable us to establish highest ends of the value chains of the extractive industry. Extensive tax and royalties’ exemptions, intolerable labour practices, and lack of value addition in the country has resulted in exceptional profits to mining companies at the expense of our communities, towns, cities and country. We cannot repeat these mistakes.”
Nana Akufo-Addo said even though it was legitimate for mining companies to make profit out of their businesses, it was important that this was not done at the expense of lands and the peoples that provided these resources.
“For several years, the extractive sector has been the largest tax base of our country apart from providing thousands of employment to several young men and women. The truth, however, is that over the years, we have not benefited optimally from these resources due to our overdependence on the export of raw products,” he added.
Nana Akufo-Addo said it was important to come to terms with the fact that the real value of natural resources laid in value addition.
“The value of the global aluminium industry, for example, from bauxite mining through alumina smelting and alumina production, is estimated to be in excess of one hundred and eighty billion United States dollars annually.
But raw bauxite accounts for only 7.6% of this market, while the remaining 92.3 % is generated from processed bauxite. This case is not different from those of gold, iron ore, manganese, cobalt, or lithium. Indeed, currently, African countries involved in the production of lithium are set to be making just about 10% of the entire value chain of the electric battery industry.
This is why government has prioritised local content and local participation as well as value addition in the natural resources sector to ensure that we derive optimal benefits from these God-given resources,” he stressed.
President Akufo-Addo noted that “Through the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC), established in 2018, we are working to ensure value-addition in our bauxite resources through refining, smelting, aluminium production, as well as production of other downstream aluminium products.”
He explained that the implementation of the 4-project agenda of GIADEC was expected to optimise production in the upstream industry and spur production and job creation in the downstream sector.
“With an estimated bauxite resource base of over 900 million metric tonnes, this sector can serve as an anchor for the country’s industrialization if we continue to pursue value-added policies.
By section 28 of the GIADEC law, and section 30 of the GISDEC law, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources is empowered to make regulations to ensure that no bauxite or iron ore in their raw state is exported out of the country after five years of the coming into force of these laws,” he emphasised.
The Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC), commenced operations in 2019, and the corporation is working to ensure value addition across the full value chain of aluminium production.
GIADEC is driving the development of mining, refining to produce alumina, and smelting to produce primary aluminium, and ultimately, to develop a downstream aluminium industry in Ghana.
GIADEC has made significant progress in the development of the four projects, which, together, define Ghana’s Integrated Aluminium Development programme.
By Cliff Ekuful
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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