Ghana To Formally Apply To Join BRICS

Ghana will formally apply to join BRICS after President John Dramani Mahama’s Cabinet approved the move, Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said on Tuesday.

Ablakwa said the decision was part of efforts to diversify Ghana’s international partnerships, expand economic opportunities and strengthen cooperation with countries in the Global South.

“Another major highlight which I am disclosing to the Ghanaian people for the first time is that the Cabinet of President John Dramani Mahama has decided that Ghana should put in a formal application to join BRICS,” Ablakwa said during the official visit of India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to Accra.

He said joining BRICS would complement, rather than replace, Ghana’s existing relationships with traditional development partners, including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and African multilateral financial institutions.

“But BRICS offers us that opportunity to have options in development, and you want to have options,” he said.

Ablakwa said the move was consistent with the Mahama administration’s efforts to move from economic stabilisation towards transformative growth through wider international cooperation, investment and industrialisation.

He identified India, Brazil and China as important economic partners and said trade between Ghana and India had more than doubled from about $3 billion in 2024 to approximately $7 billion.

The government is preparing the formal application and will seek support from existing BRICS members. Ablakwa said Ghana had already sought India’s assistance with its membership bid.

Jaishankar said India supported Ghana’s interest but stressed that membership would require consideration by the wider BRICS grouping.

BRICS was originally formed as BRIC by Brazil, Russia, India and China and was formalised at a meeting of foreign ministers in New York in 2006. South Africa later joined, while Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined in 2024, followed by Indonesia in 2025.

The bloc currently has 11 full members, while countries including Nigeria and Uganda have partner status.

Ghana’s proposed application would therefore begin a membership process rather than immediately make the country a BRICS member.

SOURCE: TRT Afrika and agencies