The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) is facing mounting scrutiny following its failure to respond to two separate Right to Information (RTI) requests submitted by a former member of its Board of Directors.
The requests, submitted on 26 September 2025 and 14 October 2025, sought detailed information on MIIF’s financial performance, audited accounts, and statutory reporting obligations under the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 2018 (Act 978).
Under the Right to Information Act, 2019 (Act 989), public institutions are required to determine and communicate a decision on an RTI application within fourteen days.
MIIF’s failure to meet these statutory deadlines—10 October and 28 October 2025, respectively—means that, by operation of law, both applications were deemed to have been refused.
The former board member, who served during the period to which the information relates, filed the requests seeking transparency on MIIF’s audited financial statements for the year ending 2024, revenue performance, and compliance with section 38 of Act 978, which obliges MIIF to prepare and submit an annual report to the Minister for Finance within one month after receiving its audit report.
The second RTI request focused specifically on whether MIIF had complied with this statutory requirement for the 2024 financial year.
To date, MIIF has not issued any formal determination on either request, nor has it offered lawful reasons for its silence.
Governance and legal experts describe MIIF’s failure to respond as a serious breach of both the RTI Act and the MIIF Act. Act 989 imposes clear, non-negotiable obligations on public institutions to promote transparency, respond to information requests promptly, and justify any refusal based on specific exemptions outlined in the law.
Additionally, sections 36(3) and 36(4) of Act 978 impose explicit duties of transparency, accountability, and public access to information on MIIF. The Act requires the Fund’s annual reports to be “readily available to the public” and directs the Minister, Board, and Advisory Committee to entrench openness in all dealings.
Legal analysts argue that the Fund’s failure to disclose such information, particularly to a former board member with direct knowledge of the institution’s operations, raises serious concerns about compliance, governance practices, and financial accountability.
MIIF manages Ghana’s mineral royalties and is mandated to invest mineral income for national development. Its operations have significant implications for fiscal management, investment governance, and the safeguarding of public resources.
Civil society organisations and anti-corruption advocates have intensified calls for MIIF to comply fully with its legal obligations, warning that continued opacity undermines public trust and could erode accountability within one of Ghana’s most strategic funds.
Under Act 989, applicants whose requests have been deemed refused may seek redress by escalating the matter to the Right to Information Commission, which has wide powers to compel disclosure and impose administrative sanctions on defaulting institutions.
It is expected that the former board member will invoke these statutory remedies.
As of press time, MIIF has not issued any public statement regarding its failure to respond to the requests or the concerns raised about its statutory obligations.
Observers note that how MIIF handles these requests as we advance will serve as a critical test of the Fund’s commitment to good corporate governance, transparency, and compliance with Ghana’s information laws.
Background
Ghana is endowed with substantial mineral reserves and has a well-established mining industry with a history of over 200 years. The key minerals mined in the country include gold, manganese, diamond, silver, granite, and bauxite.
Ghana also has significant unexploited deposits of limestone, iron ore, quartz, and lithium. Gold is the most commercially exploited mineral, accounting for over 90% of mineral revenues. Ghana has recently overtaken South Africa as Africa’s largest gold producer and consistently ranks among the top 10 global producers.
The mining industry has, over time, assumed strategic importance to the economic development of Ghana. The treatment of mineral revenue has traditionally been part of the Government’s consolidated funds. This means there are no long-term assets to compensate for the depletion of Ghana’s finite mineral resources.
In addition, the top-tier mining sector is dominated by a few multinational majors, with indigenous players restricted mainly to the small-scale mining sector.
The Government of Ghana believes that local participation in the top-tier mining sector and across the value chain can increase remarkably with the right financial investments and support.
MIIF
It is in this context that the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), Ghana’s minerals sovereign fund, was established. MIIF intends to serve as a strategic lever to maximize the mining sector’s potential for value creation in support of sustainable national development.
This is pursuant to the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 2018 (Act 978) as amended.
The mandate of the Fund is to manage the Republic’s equity interests in mining companies, to receive dividends from these equity interests, to receive mineral royalties and other related income due to the Republic from mining, and to provide for the management and investment of these funds.
The objects of the Fund are to maximize the value of the income due to the Republic from the mineral wealth of the country for the benefit of its citizens, monetize the minerals income accruing to the Republic in a beneficial, responsible, transparent, accountable, and sustainable manner; and develop and implement measures to reduce the budgetary exposure of the Republic to minerals income fluctuations.
