Economic Adviser to the Vice-President, Dr. Sharif Mahmud Khalid, has called for a strategic shift in Ghana’s fight against illegal mining, insisting that efforts must focus on exposing the financiers and equipment suppliers who fuel the galamsey industry rather than merely arresting field operators.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV on Saturday, October 11, 2025, Dr. Khalid said the nation’s anti-galamsey approach must go beyond surface-level arrests to target the “financial and logistical networks” sustaining the menace.
According to him, the continued influx and use of heavy machinery such as excavators and Changfans in illegal mining operations point to the existence of powerful financiers operating behind the scenes.
“We need to lift the veil of ownership around these excavators and Changfans,” Dr. Khalid said. “Let us identify who imports them, who owns them, and who finances their movement to mining sites. That is where the real problem lies.”
Dr. Khalid questioned how such equipment entered the country in the first place, especially Changfans, some of which were reportedly smuggled through ports and borders.
“Before they could even start manufacturing Changfans locally, how did the first ones get into the country? Through which ports? Through which borders? These are questions our security agencies must answer,” he added.
He emphasised that the illegal mining crisis should not be treated as a personal crusade of the President but as a coordinated national security issue requiring inter-agency collaboration.
“This fight cannot be left to the President alone,” he stressed. “Immigration, Customs, the security and intelligence agencies — all must play their part if we truly want to end galamsey.”
Dr. Khalid’s comments come amid renewed efforts by the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) to dismantle illegal mining operations nationwide. Security analysts have long argued that breaking the galamsey chain requires disrupting the flow of machinery and funding that sustain it — an approach Dr. Khalid believes is long overdue.
