The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has announced that government has intensified regulation of heavy mining equipment entering Ghana as part of efforts to curb illegal mining and enhance accountability within the sector.

According to the minister, the new measures were introduced to address longstanding gaps in the monitoring of excavators and other earthmoving machinery, which previously entered the country with little or no oversight.

Mr Buah made this known while briefing Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang during her visit to the Ministry on January 27, 2026. He explained that until recently, such equipment was imported without effective checks and was not registered by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), making tracking and enforcement difficult.

He noted that this has now changed, with all imported earthmoving mining equipment required to be registered with the DVLA.

As part of the reforms, the minister revealed that 1,800 earthmoving machines have been registered over the past six months, out of which 1,033 have been fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking devices to allow for real-time monitoring.

Mr Buah said the progress was achieved through collaboration with the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Finance and the Customs Division, adding that the enhanced oversight is already strengthening compliance.

“Previously, anyone could freely bring excavators into the country, and even worse, the DVLA was not registering them,” he said. “Today, through inter-ministerial collaboration, 1,800 earthmoving mining machines have been registered in the last six months, with 1,033 equipped with tracking devices.”

He explained that the tracking system is activated at the Tema Port and restricts the operation of each machine to its declared destination, helping authorities monitor usage and prevent diversion into illegal mining activities.