Salt: Ghana’s untapped billion-dollar breakthrough
Walk into any Bank of Ghana briefing today, and you’ll hear cautious optimism about the cedi’s recent stability. Dig deeper, and the truth emerges: our currency is being propped up by temporary commodity winds; gold prices hitting record highs due to global uncertainty, and cocoa shortages driving up bean values.
These are not signs of economic resilience. They are symptoms of an economy still shackled to the boom-bust cycles of raw material exports.
The numbers are sobering:
• Gold prices have swung by over 25 per cent year-to-date (Yahoo Finance), reflecting global turmoil rather than Ghana’s fundamentals.
• Cocoa output has fallen 35 per cent below target, driven by climate shocks and ageing farms.
• Oil revenues are still 18 per cent below pre-pandemic levels, weighed down by price instability and reduced output.
And yet, while we anxiously track these volatile sectors, Ghana sits atop a renewable, strategic resource that could earn the country over $1 billion annually within a decade. This resource is industrial salt.
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The Ada Opportunity We’re Squandering
The Ada Songor Lagoon holds one of the largest and purest salt deposits in West Africa. It has the potential to produce up to 2.5 million metric tonnes per year. This is enough to satisfy
Nigeria’s full import demand and still support Ghana’s own industrial needs.
Today, we are tapping into less than 20% of that potential. Production is still dominated by artisanal methods, informal operators, and an unresolved land governance structure that has stifled meaningful investment.
But salt is not just a culinary commodity. Industrial-grade salt is the cornerstone of modern industry, used in:
• Chlor-alkali production, essential for PVC, soaps, textiles, and pharmaceuticals
• Water treatment across fast-growing African cities
• Food preservation and processing, key to agro-industrial development
Brazil has built a $2 billion chemical sector off the back of its salt production. India exports over $600 million worth of salt annually. Ghana? We still import refined salt products while exporting our raw crystals at minimal value.
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A Model That Already Works
Just 90 km from Accra, Electrochem Ghana Ltd, a subsidiary of the McDan Group, is showing what’s possible. With an investment exceeding $65 million, the company has:
• Created 1,200 direct jobs, with thousands more indirect roles in transport, logistics, and support services
• Scaled production capacity to 150,000 metric tonnes annually which is currently more than all the total artisanal output annually.
• Begun attracting international interest from European chemical manufacturers
Perhaps most importantly, salt unlike gold or oil is perennially renewable. It is harvested through solar evaporation, making it one of the most climate-responsible extractive processes available. This gives Ghana a rare opportunity: to become a hub of green, resource-based industrialization in Africa.
The groundwork has been laid. But instead of accelerating this success, we remain stalled, unfortunately tied up in land disputes, policy inaction, and a lack of vision.
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Four Steps to a Salt Revolution
To transform salt from a missed opportunity into a national asset, Ghana must act boldly and immediately.
1. Declare Salt a Strategic Resource
Salt should receive the same policy priority and institutional attention as gold or oil. This means explicit designation in national industrial strategy and inclusion in investment promotion roadmaps by GIPC and the Ministry of Trade.
2. Resolve the Ada Tenure Conflict
The ongoing land and community disputes around Ada Songor require presidential-level intervention. Any resolution must be anchored in fair compensation, community participation, and clear legal frameworks for concession allocation.
3. Build a Salt Industrial Corridor
Government should establish a dedicated salt-to-chemicals value chain, linking Ada to Tema with infrastructure investments in logistics, processing plants, and tax incentives for downstream manufacturers.
4. Launch West African Salt Diplomacy
Under AfCFTA, Ghana can position itself as the preferred regional supplier, locking in trade deals with Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. This must happen before Morocco and Senegal, our main competitors, expand their dominance. Competitive advantage is key for continental dominance especially in the view of future trade competition. We need to get that industrial headstart to achieve momentum.
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The Macro Payoff: Jobs, Growth, and Forex Stability
The economic upside is massive. A fully developed salt sector could generate over $1 billion in annual export revenue, adding close to 1.5% to Ghana’s GDP.
This would significantly improve our balance of payments, stabilize the cedi, and reduce our dependence on IMF bailouts and emergency forex measures. It would also diversify Ghana’s economic engine, making us less vulnerable to the next commodity shock.
Beyond the macro figures, the salt industry could create over 10,000 direct and indirect jobs; from haulage and engineering to packaging and export logistics. These are not just any jobs, they are local, scalable, and tied to long-term industrial growth.
The Cost of Inaction
If we miss this window, we will regret it. When gold prices drop, cocoa harvests falter, and oil remains stagnant, we will once again turn to austerity and blame external forces. But the solution has been evaporating under the Accra sun all along.
Ghana doesn’t need to discover new natural resources to escape the commodity trap. We need to recognize the white gold on our seashores, and build the institutions, policies, and partnerships that can turn it into a pillar of long-term economic stability.
This is not just an opportunity for Ada. It is a national moment to lead in clean industrialization, empower rural communities, and secure Ghana’s place as Africa’s next industrial frontier.
