Roughly the same number of people work in formal employment in Ghana as in the entire artisanal and small-scale mining sector (both licensed and unlicensed): between one and 1.5 million people in each.
An estimated 70-85 per cent of this mining is conducted illegally, meaning a vast majority of the workers are in unlicensed operations.
The practice provides much-needed employment, particularly for young people with few other options, but it comes at a significant environmental and social cost.
Formal employment
For those in formal employment, it will be good news that the government recently announced that the daily minimum wage will rise from GH¢19.97 to GH¢21.77 per day, effective March 1, 2026, a nine per cent increase to match price inflation.
What can GH¢21.77 buy? While GH¢21.77 can purchase a few items, such as a small meal at a local food joint, a bottle of water, a few snacks, or a basic local bus ticket, it is totally inadequate for electronics or branded merchandise. It would only cover a very small part of the cost.
The average yearly income in Ghana in 2025 was approximately $2,320 (GH¢25,404 at the current exchange rate), according to Worlddata.info.
This places Ghana in the lower-middle-income category. Average salaries can vary significantly based on education and other factors.
A minimum wage of GH¢21.77 a day would bring in GH¢5,660.20 annually (for someone who works five days a week for 52 weeks).
The minimum wage from next March will amount to 22.2 per cent of the current average annual wage in Ghana.
Labour force
More than 80 per cent of Ghana’s labour force works in the informal economy.
Females make up a larger portion of the informal workforce, with 92 per cent of employed women in informal work compared to 86 per cent of men.
This tells us two things: (1) formal wage employment in Ghana covers a small proportion of total jobs, and (2) most Ghanaians work in the informal economy in various capacities. For the latter, the relatively low minimum wage in the formal economy is not a personal problem, although it may, of course, affect family members.
Picture this scenario: You have completed six years of primary school, three years of junior high school, and three years of senior high school.
Now, you are ready to work. You are no longer a child; you want to be economically independent, enjoy the benefits of being an adult, perhaps, in time, marry. What’s your next step?
You discover that there are only a few minimum wage jobs available. Should you apply for one?
After all, everyone has to start somewhere.
You find to your horror that such jobs do not pay anything like a living wage.
You are determined to find something better. What about the informal economy?
Start-ups
The government and church leaders recommend that you become a businessman or woman.
Start your own business and hopefully watch the money roll in.
This might not work: Around 20 per cent of new small businesses fail in their first year and around 70 per cent of Ghana’s micro and small businesses fail within their first three years.
You could become a street hawker earning perhaps GHc20 or more a day.
If you have passed your driving test and live in Accra, Kumasi, Cape Coast, Takoradi, Tamale, or Sunyani, you could drive an Uber cab.
An Uber driver’s daily earnings are not fixed and depend on several factors, but on the average, you could make anywhere from GH¢50 to GH¢150 or more, although this is an estimate only and actual amounts can vary greatly.
You could turn to crime: undesirable for many reasons, not least that your religion tells you crime is both unethical and immoral and should be avoided.
What else is there?
What about illegal small-scale gold mining, aka galamsey?
Galamsey
Those working in galamsey can earn up to GH¢300 a day, more than 15 times the current minimum wage.
‘Galamseyers’ are engaged in illegal small-scale gold mining.
The term refers to independent miners who operate outside of legal channels and mining companies.
The practice has significant environmental consequences, including water pollution from chemicals such as mercury, the trashing of once-productive arable land, and the reckless felling of trees.
More than a million Ghanaians are said to work in galamsey.
An additional 4.5 to 5 million people’s livelihoods are indirectly dependent on the proceeds of this sector.
While galamsey has roots in traditional, small-scale practices by local communities searching for gold in rivers and streams, the number of galamseyers has recently risen sharply due to factors such as high gold prices and youth unemployment.
Galamsey is condemned by the government, the church and other religious bodies, influential civil society organisations and the government-owned media.
It is likely that the New Patriotic Party was trounced in both presidential and parliamentary elections last December, partly because of its perceived inability in government to reduce galamsey.
High earning
The truth is, however, that the relatively high earning potential of galamsey, compared to limited formal employment opportunities and low agricultural income, is a primary driver for many Ghanaians, including the youth, to engage in the illegal and dangerous practice, despite the associated risks.
Galamsey is so embedded in Ghana’s political economy that it is hard to see what any government can realistically do to control it, much less eliminate it.
The greatest tragedy is that generations of Ghanaians yet to be born will be left to deal with galamsey’s disastrous long-term effects.
The writer is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the London Metropolitan University, UK.
