On Friday, 13 November 2026, Sir Sam Jonah delivered the Second I.K. Acheampong Memorial Lecture in Accra, praising the former head of state for advancing Ghanaian ownership of the country’s mineral wealth.
Jonah highlighted the 1972 policies that granted the state controlling interests in major companies such as Ashanti Goldfields and the Consolidated African Selection Trust, aiming to increase Ghanaian control while retaining foreign partners’ capital and technical expertise.
He noted that the government did not seize the operations by force; instead, it retained foreign partners under management agreements and imposed conditions on the companies’ operations.
For the first time since the Portuguese landed at Elmina, the majority of the wealth beneath Ghanaian soil belonged to Ghanaians.
Jonah explained that Acheampong insisted on three key conditions: the head office must be in Accra so that decisions were made by people who had to look Ghanaians in the eye; the state must hold the controlling voice; and a Ghanaian must be trained and placed in the deputy managing director’s chair, with the expectation that the top chair would follow.
He added that these measures created opportunities for Ghanaian professionals in the mining industry, noting that the University of Cape Coast Chancellor was among those who benefited.
Jonah recalled joining Ashanti Goldfields in 1969 as an underground miner before the 1972 takeover, later rising to become its chief executive.
His remarks were part of a broader assessment of Acheampong’s leadership and the former military government’s approach to Ghanaian participation in strategic industries.
The lecture underscored the lasting impact of Acheampong’s policies on Ghana’s mining sector and the rise of a generation of Ghanaian engineers, geologists and accountants.
