BRICS: Ghana applies for partner country status, with 23 applications already submitted

Ghana has decided to submit a formal application to the BRICS, not as a full member but as a "partner country." The announcement was made on October 6, 2026, in Accra by Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who indicated that President John Dramani Mahama's Cabinet had decided on this course of action during a press briefing held with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

Mahama: "Expanding development partnerships"

On October 16, 2026, at Jubilee House, while presenting credentials to the designated ambassadors to Angola, Qatar, Israel, and the permanent mission to the United Nations, President Mahama presented this candidacy as a "deliberate strategy" aimed at expanding the country's development partnerships and deepening South-South cooperation, reports Graphic Online. The stated goal is to open up trade opportunities, attract investment, industrialize, and process goods locally, without breaking ties with traditional partners.

The economic reasoning is explicit. According to Graphic Online, the BRICS should offer Ghana more markets for cocoa, gold, and oil that are processed rather than exported raw—the core of the government's so-called "new economy" agenda, which is structured around seven pillars including employment, investment, industrialization, and resource sovereignty.

Partner country first, full member later

When questioned on October 10, 2026, on the TV3 channel, Ablakwa confirmed that Ghana was not seeking full membership but partner status, according to MyJoyOnline. Ten countries obtained this status in 2025: Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. The BRICS also have eleven full members, including four African or Arab-African countries: South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates, alongside Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

The queue is long: about forty states have expressed interest and 23 have submitted a formal application, indicates Graphic Online. India has been asked to support the Ghanaian bid; Jaishankar replied in Accra that his country understood this interest, while reminding that membership is subject to a "collective review" by the members.

Claiming non-alignment, dismissing illusions

Ablakwa placed the move within Ghana's tradition of non-alignment, citing the Nkrumah era, when Accra negotiated the Akosombo Dam with the United States and an atomic energy agreement with the Soviet Union. He asserts that European Union member states were consulted before the announcement and summarizes the position in one sentence: "We are not turning our backs on our traditional partners," but we need "new friends." The government adds that Ghana's commitments to the IMF, the World Bank, and African financial institutions are being maintained.

Finally, a warning deserves to be noted by readers tempted to see the BRICS as a substitute funding window: according to Graphic Online, obtaining partner status does not automatically grant the right to loans or membership in the New Development Bank. To measure what Ghana actually gains, one will have to look at the cocoa and gold processing contracts, not the press releases. Ablakwa cited a quantified precedent: according to the GNA, trade between Ghana and India has more than doubled, rising from approximately $3 billion in 2024 to nearly $7 billion.

No decision timeline has been communicated by the BRICS.