Saudi Arabia Is Looking at Africa's Minerals. Ghana Should Set the Terms First.

Riyadh is not yet buying Ghana's gold. But it is building the machinery to buy into African minerals, and Accra has been inviting it in.

What has actually happened
Ghana's investment promotion centre recently presented opportunities in mining, mineral processing, agriculture and manufacturing to a Saudi business delegation. The delegation leader expressed interest in mining, agriculture and value-addition.

That is interest, not a signed deal. Earlier this year, Ghana sent its deputy lands minister and the Minerals Commission chief to the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh, presenting the country as a destination for responsible investment and value addition.

Where Saudi money is going
Saudi mining strategy runs through Ma'aden and Manara Minerals, its joint venture with the Public Investment Fund. Manara was set up to invest in minerals abroad as a non-operating partner taking minority stakes, initially in iron ore, copper, nickel and lithium.

It has signalled plans to invest $15 billion in Africa over the coming years and signed a memorandum of understanding with Zambia. Gulf investors as a whole put about $2.2 billion into African critical mineral projects in the first half of 2025, making the Gulf the third-largest

funder after China and Western countries.

The pattern is copper, nickel and battery metals, not gold. One analysis of Saudi mineral partnerships lists bilateral agreements with eight African states, Chad, DR Congo, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Zimbabwe. Ghana is not on that list. There is also uncertainty at the top: PIF plans to spin Manara off, with new Saudi or foreign shareholders possible.

Why Ghana's rules matter
Ghana has changed the terms of engagement. Since 1 September, unrefined gold doré cannot be approved for export. GoldBod says local refining lets Ghana keep fees once paid to refiners in Dubai, India and Switzerland, and the target is that all Ghanaian minerals are refined locally by 2030. That closes the simplest Gulf model, buying Ghanaian doré and refining it elsewhere.

What it leaves open is investment in Ghanaian refining capacity, LBMA accreditation, mining services and processing. These are the areas where a patient Saudi investor could add value, and the same areas the investment centre flagged to the delegation.

Three tests for any Saudi suitor
Refine in Ghana. Any gold interest must respect GoldBod's rule and the 2030 target.

Serve the reserve strategy. GoldBod's foreign-exchange and reserve-accumulation goals come first, so deals must not divert supply from them.

Be transparent. Terms, ownership and offtake arrangements should be public, given the accounting gaps critics see in small-scale gold trade.

The wider context
Saudi Arabia is rewriting its security ties, from the Pakistan-Turkey pact to its Red Sea exposure, and economic interest usually follows strategic interest. Ghana cannot stop Gulf capital from arriving. It can decide the rules it arrives under.

Mustapha Bature Sallama
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Analysis,
International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. (USIP)
[email protected]
+233555275880

Sources: The Herald Ghana, "Ghana opens mining, agriculture frontiers to Saudi investors"; Citi Newsroom and GhanaWeb, Ghana at Future Minerals Forum 2026 (13 Jan 2026); AGBI, "PIF plans Manara Minerals spinoff"; The Africa Report, "Why Gulf States are targeting African mines"; Arab News on Manara's mandate; Afripoli, "Mapping Africa's Green Mineral Partnerships"; Africa Intelligence/Rio Times and DailyGuide Network on Ghana's refining rule.