MIIF Posts GH₵1.1bn Profit in 2025 Despite 98% Cut in Royalty Allocation
The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) has delivered an audited profit of GH₵1.1 billion for 2025, holding firm despite a sweeping legal amendment that slashed its share of minerals royalties and dividends to just 2%.
The strong performance was achieved under the Minerals Income Investment Fund (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1137), which reduced the Fund’s allocation of minerals royalties and its 10% free carried interest in mining companies from 77.6% and 100% respectively in 2024 to 2% in 2025. That represents a cut of more than 98 percentage points in a single year.
Despite the reduced allocation, the Fund’s royalty collections rose to GH₵5.4 billion in 2025 from GH₵4.9 billion the previous year. Its balance sheet also strengthened, with retained earnings growing by nearly 35% and the equity-to-assets ratio improving from 27% to 43%.
The fair value reserve jumped by more than 680% on positive revaluations of investment securities. Current liabilities fell by about 37%, pushing the liabilities-to-assets ratio down from 73% to 56%, while trade and other payables dropped by more than 91%.
The momentum has carried into 2026. MIIF recorded GH₵5.39 billion in mineral royalties in the first half of the year, hitting 186.1% of target and more than doubling the GH₵2.6 billion collected in the same period of 2025. Second quarter receipts alone reached 98% of the entire GH₵5.43 billion collected in all of 2025, putting full-year collections on course to far exceed last year’s total.
Large-scale gold mining drove the surge, contributing GH₵5.31 billion, or 197.2% of target and more than 98% of total receipts.
The Fund attributed the performance to elevated international gold prices, the sliding-scale royalty regime that captures more value during price upswings, tighter compliance monitoring and increased mine visits led by Chief Executive Officer Mrs Justina Nelson.
Medium-scale gold operations also performed strongly at 176.4% of target, supported by the same price environment and efforts to regularise outstanding royalty obligations.
Non-gold minerals were mixed, but sand royalties stood out. Receipts rose to GH₵516,721.13, up 136% from GH₵380,619.26 in H1 2025 and 129% of the half-year target. MIIF said the requirement for operators to obtain its clearance letters before the Minerals Commission issues permits was key to improving payment discipline.
Speaking on the results, Mrs Nelson said she was optimistic about the rest of 2026, citing resilient gold production, the sliding-scale royalty mechanism and sustained compliance efforts.
She however, cautioned that risks remain, including a possible moderation in gold prices, operational disruptions, continued weakness in the manganese market, and persistent regulatory and illegal mining challenges in the quarry, salt and sand sectors.
“Addressing these risks through enhanced stakeholder engagement, strengthened enforcement, and continued compliance interventions will be critical to sustaining royalty growth during the second half of 2026,” she said.
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