ABUJA, NIGERIA — The global race for critical minerals is creating a new challenge for West Africa, as governments confront the dual pressures of rising economic opportunities and the urgent need to strengthen regulatory institutions capable of governing resources whose value is rising faster than their capacity to manage them .
Gold remains one of the region’s most important commodities, while lithium has rapidly acquired strategic importance because of its role in batteries and the wider energy transition . As the economic value of these resources rises, governments are confronting not only opportunities for economic diversification but also growing pressures on regulatory authority, environmental protection and security. Ghana and Nigeria offer two revealing examples of the same fundamental challenge at different stages of evolution .
Ghana’s Entrenched Galamsey Crisis
Ghana is struggling with the entrenched problem of galamsey—illegal small-scale mining that has caused extensive damage to rivers, forests and agricultural land, creating consequences that extend far beyond the mining sector itself . The environmental crisis has become an economic and governance crisis, with the government reporting that nine out of Ghana’s 288 forest reserves have been severely affected, with an estimated 8,900 hectares of forest reserves lost—equivalent to approximately 12,500 football fields .
The problem persists despite 258 arrests, the seizure of 234 excavators, and 2,728 pumping machines. Prosecution remains the biggest challenge, with the Lands Minister acknowledging: “The challenge we are having is not the arrest. It is the prosecution” . The Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey has rejected government assertions that the era of impunity is over, arguing that illegal mining activities continue to threaten forests, water bodies, mining communities and critical national assets, including the Bui Hydroelectric Dam catchment area .
Galamsey does not survive simply because individuals are willing to mine without licences. It survives because a broader economic network supports extraction, including financiers, equipment suppliers and mineral buyers . Enforcement concentrated at the point of extraction can address only part of the problem; the economic structures that sustain illegal mining remain largely intact .
Nigeria’s Emerging Lithium Governance Challenge
Nigeria is attempting to govern a rapidly emerging lithium industry, with recent discoveries in Nasarawa, Kaduna and other states attracting increasing interest from investors and mining operators . Deposits in Nasarawa State, in particular, have drawn significant attention, while Zamfara State recently unveiled a $200 million lithium mining and processing plant in Zurmi Local Government Area, a joint investment expected to create about 2,000 jobs and generate substantial revenue through royalties, company income tax and VAT .
However, governance risks are already becoming visible. Nigerian authorities have increasingly targeted suspected illegal lithium mining and mineral trading operations, including cases involving both foreign nationals and Nigerian citizens . A significant challenge is the legal framework, under the Constitution and the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act 2007, all minerals in or on land are vested in the Federal Government. If minerals are discovered in commercial quantities, the government can acquire the land under the Land Use Act 1978 .
Professor Omolade Adunbi of the University of Michigan has warned that the global race for critical minerals could deepen Nigeria’s security challenges if poorly regulated, cautioning that extraction without justice produces conflict, while development without consent produces instability . He and other experts have urged the government to establish a robust governance framework to ensure that the energy transition does not replicate the environmental and social injustices associated with decades of oil exploitation .
Experts have called for the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent to be embedded into law, warning that consultation after a licence is granted is not consent, and a signature by one local elite is not consent . The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has warned that Nigeria risks missing out on opportunities in the fast-growing global market for critical minerals if governance, legislation, and community rights are not strengthened .
The Common Challenge
Beneath these different mineral economies lies a common question: can West African states strengthen their capacity quickly enough to govern resources whose value is rising faster than their institutions? Enforcement alone cannot solve either country’s mineral governance problem. If licensing remains opaque, regulatory institutions remain under-resourced and communities have limited opportunities to participate in legitimate mining activities, informal extraction can become economically attractive. Once illicit markets become established, they become considerably harder to dismantle . Ghana’s experience demonstrates how difficult mineral governance becomes once illegal extraction becomes deeply embedded in local and commercial economies. Nigeria, by contrast, faces the risk of repeating aspects of the experience that have made illegal mining difficult to contain elsewhere.
