The Government of Ghana has inaugurated a team to negotiate with a strategic partner over the retooling, expansion and long-term future of the Volta Aluminium Company Limited (VALCO).
The team was established by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources on 21 August 2026 as part of Ghana’s wider Integrated Aluminium Industry agenda.
Its main responsibility will be to lead discussions with a prospective investor and agree definitive terms for modernising the state-owned aluminium smelter. The negotiations will assess the investor’s technical capability, financial strength, experience in smelter operations and willingness to commit to long-term investment in Ghana’s aluminium sector.
Inaugurating the committee, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah said the government remained committed to transforming VALCO into an efficient, profitable and globally competitive company.
He also stressed the need to protect Ghana’s strategic national interest across the aluminium value chain and urged the committee to conduct its work transparently and diligently. Members were instructed to ensure value for money, with the minister warning that VALCO was a vital national asset that could not be allowed to collapse.
The move comes as the Tema-based smelter faces serious operational difficulties. The number of active cells has fallen from 127 in 2025 to about 90 by August 2026, with ageing equipment, power limitations and supply chain problems contributing to the decline.
The Negotiations Team includes representatives from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC), the Ministry of Finance, the Attorney-General’s Department and VALCO’s Chief Executive Officer.
The Ministry said the process would not result in an outright privatisation of VALCO. Instead, the government intends to bring in a credible strategic partner to provide the investment required to modernise the plant while helping to protect jobs.
VALCO was established in 1964 as part of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s plan to use electricity generated by the Akosombo Dam to develop an integrated aluminium industry in Ghana.
The smelter, situated in Tema, was designed to operate more than 200 pots and produce 200,000 tonnes of aluminium each year. At its peak, it was a major employer and an important source of foreign exchange for the country.
The Government of Ghana acquired 100% of VALCO’s shares in 2008 after Kaiser Aluminium withdrew. Since then, the company has struggled with unreliable and expensive power supplies, ageing rectifiers and carbon plant equipment, as well as insufficient capital for retooling.
Efforts to identify a strategic investor have been under way for several years. In 2022, Cabinet approved a request from GIADEC and its subsidiary VALCO to secure a strategic equity investor for the modernisation project.
An independent technical and financial assessment carried out by KPMG in 2022 concluded that equity investment was the most commercially viable option for reviving the smelter.
In November 2025, a 12-member cross-sector committee was inaugurated to assess proposals from interested entities. The committee included representatives of VALCO, GIADEC, the Ministries of Lands and Natural Resources, Energy & Green Transition, Finance, and Trade. It was inaugurated by Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah and submitted its options analysis report on 7 January 2026.
GIADEC was established by the government in 2018 to oversee development of Ghana’s complete bauxite-to-aluminium value chain, with VALCO serving as its anchor smelter. The corporation has repeatedly stated that the government does not intend to sell VALCO, but may transfer part of its equity to a strategic investor in return for capital investment and the retooling of the plant.
