The Good and the Bad of Structural Adjustment Programme in Africa: Evidence from Ghanaian Gold Mining Industry

Abstract

Structural adjustment programme (SAP) is the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank agenda for addressing the debt and economic crises of some Third World countries. To help countries however, the World Bank/IMF demand reforms. SAP programmes have been implemented by many African countries including Ghana that embraced the policy in April 1983. The article evaluates the impact of SAP on adjusting countries in Africa with particular focus on the Ghanaian gold mining industry, which the policy impacts mostly through privatisation, one of the conditions of SAP that has resulted in foreign direct investments and influx of multinational companies into the country. Using predominantly academic and popular literature, and industry data from the Ghana Chamber of Mines and World Bank reports on industry, it emerges that the policy has integrated Ghana, like other adjusting African nations, into the global economy and reshaped the gold mining industry. The policy however falls short of what it was intended to achieve; rather worsening the situations including detachment of the Ghanaian government from her own mineral resources; ‘subsidiarity’ of Ghanaian gold mining industry; and massive unemployment.