BRICS: Ghana to submit application and demands sovereignty over its resources

Ghana is set to submit an official application for BRICS membership: Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced this on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, in Accra, during a joint press briefing with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, reports the Daily Graphic. The Cabinet has approved the move, which aligns with the economic vision of President John Dramani Mahama.

The argument can be summed up in three words: "We want resource sovereignty," declared Ablakwa, according to the Daily Graphic. As the continent's second-largest gold producer and a major cocoa exporter, Ghana wants to stop selling raw materials in favor of processing them locally, and is seeking partners willing to finance this industrialization.

Moving beyond conditionalities, without slamming the door

The minister also put forward a more political objective: to broaden the country's financing options and escape the conditionalities imposed by certain international institutions, while supporting a multipolar world. He took care to clarify that Accra is not turning its back on its traditional partners and remains a member of the Bretton Woods institutions, while recalling the role of Afreximbank, which mobilized approximately 700 million dollars during the Ghanaian financial crisis of 2023-2024.

India, a founding member of the group, expressed its support. Jaishankar assured that New Delhi has always supported Ghana's aspirations, while noting that membership is a collective decision by the members. Trade between the two countries has more than doubled, rising from approximately 3 billion dollars in 2024 to nearly 7 billion today, according to Ablakwa.

If the application is successful, Ghana would join a club where Africa is still underrepresented: South Africa has been a member since 2009, while Egypt and Ethiopia joined the group during the recent expansion, alongside Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia, notes Africanews.

Nothing is guaranteed. Ablakwa himself speaks of "small steps": the formal request must first be submitted, then the current members must be convinced, with no timeline announced. And membership will only be as valuable as what Accra makes of it: the BRICS offer funding and diplomatic weight, not a guarantee of factories, jobs, or local value addition.

For Ghanaian citizens, the real test will come later: whether this diplomacy of diversification translates into cocoa processed in Tema rather than Amsterdam, and gold refined in Ghana rather than elsewhere.