The Politico-Economic Frameworks of Modern Slavery in the Ghanaian Gold Industry

By Arjun Mehta Oct. 30, 2025

I - Introduction

Over 668,000 children in Ghana are subjected to child labor in Ghana industries and denied their basic humanitarian rights. 91,000 recorded individuals in forced labor, its ratio to the total population 35 times that of the United States. And yet, only 0.7% of government investigations of worksites were prosecuted and there are less than 180 labor inspectors in the nation. Such issues become far more prominent in Ghana’s gold industry.

Ghana’s gold industry is one of the largest gold producers in Africa and the sixth-largest in the world. Accordingly, its gold industry consists of up to 48.4% of Ghana’s gold merchandise exports in 2020. The significance of the Ghanaian gold industry naturally brings forth various institutional responses both domestically and internationally. Thus, this report will examine the political and economic relationships between various institutions that affect modern slavery in the Ghanaian gold industry.

II - Domestic Countermeasures 

Ghana’s gold production goes through a convoluted supply chain. While it is true that most gold production comes from larger commercial mining firms, the majority of the labor force, or forced labor within the industry, is within artisanal and small-scale gold mining. A report by Human Rights Watch addresses the issues within such mines: children as young as the age of 9 are subjected to up to 14-hour labor shifts. The working conditions are worse: over 300 cave-ins in a single artisanal mine over a year and extremely high rates of mercury exposure amongst the labor force. Due to such working conditions, the Ghanaian government previously attempted to impose countermeasures against these artisanal mines. Ghana’s Children Act prohibits mining work for all under the age of 18. In February 2017, the government issued a nationwide ban on artisanal and small-scale mining, regardless of license registration status. 

While there was a legislative retaliation set in place against artisanal mines, government efforts first fall on the issue of enforcement feasibility. There is a significant lack of enforcement due to the supply chain system that inhibits the tracking of gold production. The Human Rights Watch describes this process in three steps. The gold is produced in small-scale mines and bought by local traders. These traders then sell it to third parties called refiners. At the end of the chain, these refiners export the gold so that 90% of the world’s gold production reaches less than 10 companies. The continuous unlicensed selling of gold to other parties makes tracking down original gold mining sources nearly impossible. Especially when there is a lack of trained government officials, proper enforcement of legislation is not an option in Ghana.  

The Ghanaian government is held back by its economic and political status when imposing stricter legislative restrictions on such small-artisanal mines. The Ghanaian economy is heavily dependent on its gold industry, as shown through the industry consisting of 48.4% of Ghana’s merchandise exports. The Ghanaian government cannot impose additional forms of restrictions in hopes of eradicating forced/child labor in the industry due to severe economic backlashes that can follow. In 2015, Ghana’s government imposed a 5% additional tax on artisanal gold mines. The total revenue of the Ghanaian gold industry decreased by approximately $521,000,000 the following year. When Ghana’s government reduced the tax to 3% in 2019, the gold revenue increased by $769,000,000 from the previous year. Finally, in January 2022 when the government reduced the tax again to 1.5%, the gold revenue increased by $1,517,000,000. When the government experiences significant amounts of economic growth consistently due to reduced legislative measures, it creates a sense of deterrence of imposing additional legal restrictions against forced labor in the gold industry. In fact, the government rather chooses to decrease the already existing legislation in this previous instance. There cannot be a method of holding the stakeholders in the industry accountable for their actions of forced and child labor that is both feasible and effective. 

III - International Response 

When Ghana is unable to solve the issue of modern slavery domestically, international intervention is necessary. The issue is that foreign powers are also hesitant to intervene directly regarding this issue. While Ghana is dependent on its gold industry for the nation’s economic growth, multiple other foreign powers are also dependent on the Ghanaian gold industry for their supply of gold. Countries such as the United Arab Emirates, the People’s Republic of China, and the United States are all major trading partners of gold with Ghana. The dependency on foreign powers comes from the cost competitiveness of Ghanaian gold. 

The reason why Ghanian gold’s significantly cheap price ultimately derives from the use of forced labor. A study conducted by the University of Sheffield's Political Economy Research Institute reveals that the average wage of Ghanaian workers in forced labor is 30% of the poverty line standard and 23% of the workers have performed labor that they were not compensated for. Naturally, such cheap labor forces result in increased cost competitiveness and demand from other economic powers. A study by Samuel Kawame Atta at the Ghana Geological Survey Authority in 2019 reveals that Ghana had a significant cost-competitive advantage over South Africa, a major competitor in the gold industry. Accordingly, when Ghana’s gold cost decreased, increasing the demand from foreign powers, it replaced South Africa shortly after as the largest gold producer in Africa. Forced labor is the reason for the high demand for Ghanaian gold and its cost competitiveness. 

The lack of international intervention to solve the issue of forced labor in Ghana is held back by such a sense of dependency. When major trading partners, such as the United States or the EU, call out Ghana’s gold industry for their use of forced labor, it directly stymies the trade relationship between the two nations. A parallel situation was shown in the United States’ decision to impose sanctions on Chinese industries that use forced labor in October 2023: Shein and Temu. Even though more than 30% of all packages that came into the U.S. in 2022 were from these industries, the United States still decided to take action only because the industries used forced labor. When the United States has taken severe stances on the issue of forced labor in previous instances, they cannot call out Ghana’s gold industry for charges of forced labor without inhibiting additional gold imports that the United States is dependent on and being forced to import gold at comparatively higher prices. 

III - Conclusion

With domestic institutions lacking de facto power to properly enforce legislative measures and foreign institutions refusing to act, held back by political and economic factors, the issue of forced labor in Ghana remains untouched. While changing the underlying political and economic motives of other nations is practically infeasible, improving the domestic situations can be achieved with multiple nations, especially first-world countries with significant influence, aiding the Ghanaian government in funding and supporting Ghana’s government in international communities. This will in turn unshackle the economic and political chains that are holding Ghana’s ability to act against forced labor in their gold-mining industry. 

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