ACCRA, GHANA. The Ghana Medical Trust Fund urged mining companies on Aug. 19 to redirect corporate spending into healthcare infrastructure in mining communities, citing a nationwide assessment that found only two functional MRI machines in Ghana’s public tertiary health sector.
Adjoa Obuobia Darko-Opoku, administrator of the Ghana Medical Trust Fund, was speaking at the National Mining Dialogue 2026 in Accra, held under the theme “Rethinking the Social License to Operate.”
Ghana Medical Trust Fund counts two public MRI machines
The assessment also counted five mammogram machines and two public radiotherapy machines nationally, and found two practising cardiologists serving the entire northern sector without appropriate equipment.
“You do not extract value from the soil. You extract value through people,” Darko-Opoku said, in remarks reported by Graphic Online. “At 2am, money cannot buy time. In a medical emergency, your wealth does not save you; the infrastructure nearest to you does.”
She argued that community tolerance does not amount to a social licence. “A true Social License cannot simply mean, ‘The community tolerates our presence.’ It must mean, ‘Because this company operates here, our people live longer, healthier lives,’” she said. “That is not CSR. That is an unshakable, generational Social License.”
Darko-Opoku said Ghana’s greatest resource has never been underground. The Ghana Medical Trust Fund is inviting mining companies to partner on mapping healthcare needs, co-investing in medical equipment, sponsoring specialist training and building healthcare infrastructure.
Why it matters: Equipment gaps of this size make private co-investment central to any realistic plan for expanding diagnostic access in Ghana.
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