Former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has called for the establishment of a statutory Environmental Restoration Fund outside Ghana’s regular budget cycle to finance the reclamation of mining-degraded lands and the restoration of polluted water bodies.
He proposed that a defined portion of mineral royalties be channelled into the fund and used exclusively for environmental restoration, with its management subject to independent oversight and full public disclosure.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng argued that keeping the fund outside the national budget would help protect it from being diverted when governments face fiscal pressures.
“A defined share of mineral royalties [should go] into a statutory Environmental Restoration Fund, independently governed, spent on river remediation and land reclamation, with site-level accounts published annually,” he proposed.
He stressed the need for the fund to operate independently of the national budget, warning that funds incorporated into the budget could be redirected during periods of economic difficulty.
“Outside the budget cycle, because anything inside it will be raided in the second year of a hard fiscal programme. It always is,” he said.
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng made the remarks while delivering the keynote address at the Fourth Annual Colloquium organised by the Department of Political Science Education at the University of Education, Winneba, on Wednesday, September 2, 2026.
The colloquium was held under the theme, “Politics, the Environment, and Our Future: Ghana at Crossroads?”
$21bn needed to restore degraded land
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said approximately 10% of Ghana’s surface area, equivalent to about 23,853 square kilometres, has been degraded, with restoration estimated to require approximately $21 billion.
He said the rehabilitation of the Ankobra River alone was estimated to cost about $400 million, excluding the resources required to restore other polluted water bodies.
These include the Pra, Offin, Birim, Anum and Oda rivers, as well as the Black, White and Red Volta rivers.
According to the former minister, the scale of the environmental damage requires a predictable and protected source of funding rather than temporary allocations that could be withdrawn or redirected by successive governments.
He therefore proposed that the Environmental Restoration Fund be independently managed and required to publish annual accounts showing expenditure at each restoration site.
Call for annual State of the Environment audit
Prof. Frimpong-Boateng also called for the introduction of an annual State of the Environment audit, which should be presented to Parliament alongside the national budget.
He said the audit should provide independently verified data on water quality across river basins, forest cover, degraded and reclaimed land, waste management and wetland loss.
“What is not measured publicly is not governed,” he said.
The former minister maintained that dedicated financing, combined with strong transparency and independent oversight, would help ensure that a portion of the revenue generated from Ghana’s mineral resources is reinvested in repairing environmental damage caused by mining and other extractive activities.
