Accounting for the informalisation of small-scale enterprises: evidence from Ghana’s gold mining industry

Ghana’s gold mining industry comprises both large and small actors. While the former is controlled by foreign-owned multinational enterprises, the latter is dominated by small and artisanal native miners. The small-scale mining sector was legalised in 1989 after it had been displaced by the British colonial authority in 1932. While this sector continues to grow, it remains informal. Even though researchers have attempted to highlight the sector’s informal state, little attention has been drawn to the contribution of institutional changes. To bridge this gap, we employed qualitative archival data from Ghana and the UK to explain the long-standing informalisation as well as the measures to facilitate the sector’s formalisation. We argue that the genesis of the informalisation is the colonial policy that banned indigenous entrepreneurs from operating mining businesses. We posit that until its decolonisation, the sector will continue to operate in the informal economy and exhibit characteristics of illegality.<p></p>