The Administrator of the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (GMTF), Adjoa Obuobia Darko-Opoku, has challenged Ghana’s mining industry to redefine its social responsibility.

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She said that they could do by investing not only in roads, schools and boreholes, but in the healthcare systems that keep mining communities alive.

Speaking at the National Mining Dialogue 2026 in Accra on the theme “Rethinking the Social License to Operate,” Ms. Darko-Opoku told mining executives, investors and policymakers that the true wealth of Ghana was not buried beneath the soil, but found in its people.

“You do not extract value from the soil. You extract value through people.”

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She warned that when the health of a nation failee, every industry, including mining, ultimately suffered.

In one of the most striking moments of her address, the Administrator challenged the assumption that wealth provides immunity from Ghana’s healthcare challenges.

She painted the picture of a sudden heart attack in the middle of the night, when there may be no time to fly a patient to London or Johannesburg, no matter how wealthy the family is.

“At 2:00 AM, money cannot buy time. In a medical emergency, your wealth does not save you; the infrastructure nearest to you does.”

Her message was simple but unsettling: Ghana’s healthcare crisis does not discriminate between the rich and poor.

She recounted the devastating reality of families who spend decades building modest lives, only for a diagnosis such as prostate cancer to wipe out their savings, force them to sell property and leave them borrowing desperately to keep a loved one alive.

📰 Source: Joy Online Ghana