Ghana has $1.5 trillion in unrecognised assets, Says Prof. Alagidede

Business

4 months ago

A leading African Economist and Policy Thinker, Professor Yegandi Imhotep Paul Alagidede has stated that Ghana is far wealthier than its official economic indicators suggest, arguing that the country is sitting on a conservatively valued $1.5 trillion asset base that remains invisible within the nation’s accounting and monetary systems.He made the remarks on Monday, January 19, 2026, during a high-level public lecture jointly organised by the Centre for Policy Scrutiny (CPS) and JOYNEWS in Accra.Speaking on the theme “Rich in Gold, Poor in Liquidity: Omnidox and the Reconstruction of Ghana’s Monetary Architecture,” Professor Alagidede delivered a sweeping critique of Ghana’s current economic framework, which he described as outdated, narrow, and misaligned with the country’s true resource wealth.He argued that Ghana’s liquidity challenges, frequent recourse to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and recurring macroeconomic instability stem not from a lack of resources but from a failure to recognise and account for the country’s asset stocks, particularly gold.“We are not a poor nation. We are a wealthy country suffering from a temporary loss of memory,” he said to applause. “Ghana is sitting on an asset base of about $1.5 trillion, yet our national accounting systems only recognise less than four percent of that wealth. We ignore the gold under our feet and value only the gold that leaves our shores.”According to Professor Alagidede, who is also the Bank of Ghana Chair in Finance and Economics at the University of Ghana, Ghana’s official GDP currently recorded around $82 billion is a fraction of the country’s true economic worth. He explained that the orthodox system of national income accounting captures only the visible, extractive, market-based flows but excludes a vast set of assets, including in-situ gold, informal sector productivity, unpaid care work, indigenous knowledge systems, land value, ecological assets, and social capital.“If we simply shift from a flow-based accounting model to an asset-based system of national accounting, Ghana’s economy expands by more than twenty times. Our problem is not scarcity. Our problem is the accounting system and the economic philosophy that guide it.”The professor argued that Ghana’s gold reserves both extracted and unextracted represent a formidable foundation for domestic liquidity creation. With an estimated 1,000 metric tonnes of proven gold reserves valued at current prices, he noted that activating even 40 to 60 percent of this resource as a balance-sheet asset could unlock between $634 billion and $952 billion in fiscal space.“This is liquidity we already have, not liquidity we need to borrow. If properly verified and governed, gold can anchor our currency, stabilise expectations, and eliminate the cycle of recurring IMF dependency.”At the event, the Executive Director of CPS, Dr. Adu Owusu Sarkodie, reinforced Professor Alagidede’s argument and commended policymakers especially former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia for initiating the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, which increased Ghana’s gold reserves from 8 tonnes in 2021 to 38 tonnes in 2025.“The Domestic Gold Purchase Programme has shown what is possible when we rethink how assets are mobilised,” Dr. Sarkodie said. “It is time to scale this effort and reconfigure Ghana’s monetary architecture around what we own, not what we borrow.”Professor Alagidede argued that to unlock Ghana’s dormant wealth, the country must transition from traditional economic doctrines to a new layer of valuation and policy design known as Omnidox, a metanomic framework he developed to integrate natural resources, balance sheets, and sovereign liquidity into a coherent economic model.“Orthodox and heterodox theories have guided us for decades, but they have also kept us on a treadmill moving but not advancing. Omnidox teaches us to look inward, recognise our sovereign assets, and build monetary systems rooted in African intelligence and indigenous value structures.”He further urged the Ghana Statistical Service to adopt a sovereign asset audit, incorporate stock-based assets into GDP calculations, and establish a national balance-sheet accounting system. He also called on the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance to shift from externally anchored liquidity doctrines to domestic resource-based monetary governance.“We must graduate from borrowed economic doctrines. Gold is not just a commodity. It is a foundation for sovereignty. And until we treat it as such, we will continue to borrow paper from abroad while sitting on a mountain of value at home.”The lecture closed with a call for sustained national dialogue and institutional reform to align Ghana’s monetary system with its asset endowment. Participants agreed that Professor Alagidede’s analysis provides a substantive framework for policymakers seeking long-term solutions to liquidity pressures, currency instability, and external dependence.

source: Theannouncergh.com

Ghana has $1.5 trillion in unrecognised assets, Says Prof. Alagidede

Opinion