Newmont-backed foundation opens GH₵28m sports complex at Ahafo South

The Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation (NADeF) has commissioned a GH₵28m multipurpose sports complex in Kenyasi, one of the host communities around Newmont's Ahafo South mine, as part of a community investment programme that has now channelled more than GH₵170m into local projects.

What was built

The new facility includes a standard artificial-turf pitch, a tartan athletics track, a 500-capacity spectator stand, floodlights, changing rooms and a press box, serving the neighbouring communities of Kenyasi No. 1, Kenyasi No. 2 and Ntotroso. At the commissioning event, Samuel Bonney Noi, process manager and acting general manager at Ahafo South, said development was not only about roads, buildings and economic opportunity, but also about creating spaces where people could learn, grow and pursue their talents.

Two decades of NADeF spending

NADeF was established alongside Ahafo South's development and has since executed more than 100 community projects and funded thousands of scholarships for students from the host districts, drawing on a fixed contribution linked to the mine's gold output. Its work is coordinated in part through a 53-member Ahafo Social Responsibility Forum bringing together traditional authorities, local government and company representatives. The foundation's spending sits alongside Newmont's separate $34m road-building programme for the same area and its funding of underground skills training at the nearby Subika operation, together forming a broader package of social investment tied to the mine.

Why it matters

Sustained, visible community spending of this kind is central to how large gold miners maintain a social licence to operate in host districts, particularly as a mine complex like Ahafo matures and shifts production between an older pit at Ahafo South and the newer Ahafo North operation nearby. For NADeF, crossing the GH₵170m cumulative mark gives local leaders a concrete benchmark against which to measure the foundation's promises in future years.

What happens next

Newmont and NADeF have signalled further infrastructure and social spending is planned through 2028 alongside the road programme, meaning the sports complex is likely to be one of several community facilities the foundation opens as Ahafo South's mine life continues to run down and Ahafo North's output builds up.

Sources

• MyJoyOnline: Newmont Ahafo South anchors sustainable legacy beyond mining with major community, infrastructure investments, 28 Aug 2026

Photo: Visitors at Newmont's Ahafo mine complex in Ghana, host to the company's community investment programmes. The EITI, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.