Seen from Accra, BRICS membership will not end Ghana's external dependence

Summary

Writing for Accra-based IMANI on 9 October 2026, Sitsofe John Mensah treats Ghana's exploration of BRICS membership as a significant strategic turn. In his view the interest reflects fatigue with the conditionality of the Bretton Woods institutions and with dollar dominance. Financing from the New Development Bank that carries no domestic-policy conditions is attractive, as is the chance to reduce reliance on the dollar in bilateral trade. Mensah argues, however, that membership alone will not cure economic dependence; it may simply change the address of the creditor and the supplier.

Mensah's core concern is the structure of the economy. Ghana exports raw commodities such as gold, cocoa and oil and imports machinery and staple foods, so moving closer to BRICS could widen the trade deficit without changing that pattern. He also flags the risk that cheap goods from China and India could undergo light assembly in Ghana, be labelled as local products and enter a continental market of more than 1 billion people duty-free. That would hurt African industry and could set Ghana, host of the AfCFTA secretariat, against Nigeria.

On security, the author points to the three Sahel states that have left ECOWAS and partnered with Moscow, and warns that closer ties with BRICS could strain Ghana's security and trade choices with Western partners. He sets out seven recommendations. The first three are industrialisation rather than raw-material exports, strict enforcement of rules of origin, and applying environmental law against illegal mining. The rest begin with a return to Nkrumah's line of active non-alignment. They add African payment systems so that the yuan does not simply replace the dollar, a strong civil service, and channelling BRICS capital into regional railways and logistics.