President John Mahama has announced that his government will shift its attention from small-scale offenders to the influential backers and masterminds driving Ghana’s destructive illegal mining industry, widely known as galamsey.
Presenting his State of the Nation Address to Parliament on Friday, Mahama described the menace of illegal mining as a “grave threat” to the country’s environment, rivers, public health, and national security.
He admitted that past enforcement measures have often failed to reach those most culpable.“Mr. Speaker, prosecution of persons engaged in illegal mining has been intense,” Mahama told legislators.
Yet he pointed out a major weakness in earlier strategies, noting that actions have been “behind Galamsey operations, rather than targeting only the little fish, low-level offenders.”
“Mr. Speaker, in all these Galamsey operations, there are big fish who never get caught,” the President declared, signaling a decisive change in approach.
To tackle this, Mahama announced the introduction of specialized prosecutorial units tasked with expediting trials and ensuring that justice reaches the top tiers of the illicit trade.
He disclosed that 140 communities—mainly towns and villages—are particularly vulnerable to illegal mining activities.
Outlining their mission, Mahama said: “Specialized prosecutorial teams have been deployed to fast-track illegal mining cases, ensure the effective presentation of evidence, and pursue the confiscation and forfeiture of equipment and proceeds used in or derived from illegal mining.”
The President’s remarks mark a renewed offensive against galamsey, which has long ravaged Ghana’s forests and contaminated water bodies. By pledging to pursue the financiers and beneficiaries—the so-called “big fish”—the administration aims to dismantle the economic networks sustaining the unlawful operations.
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