The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, says the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector generated $10.8 billion in foreign exchange (FX) in 2025, attributing the performance to reforms that brought more gold previously lost to smuggling and illegal trade into the formal economy.
He said in volume terms, gold exports from the ASM sector increased from 63 tonnes in 2024 to nearly 104 tonnes last year.
“More importantly, the ASM gold sector in 2025 generated $10.8 billion in foreign exchange for the country,” Mr Gyamfi said in a keynote address at the 2026 African Minerals Policy Forum in Accra last Monday.
The event is dubbed “Mining in Motion”.
The GoldBod CEO explained that the FX inflows from ASM gold supported reserve accumulation and currency stability, and contributed to the cedi’s 41 per cent appreciation against the US dollar in 2025.
The conference organised by the Ashanti Green Initiative was held on the theme: “From Gold Production to National Prosperity: Ghana’s GoldBod Model for Mineral Sovereignty and Value Addition.”
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources served as principal convening partner, with support from the World Bank, the World Gold Council and the African Union.
It drew Liberia’s Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung, former UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, Environment Minister Dr Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings, OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, African Union officials and ministers from Guinea, Tanzania, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Malawi and Liberia.
Reforms
On reforms, Mr Gyamfi said GoldBod introduced a four-tier licensing system, transparent pricing, digital stock-booking, official receipts and increased state-funded liquidity for local gold purchases to formalise gold trading and curb smuggling and under-declaration.
The GoldBod, he said, also deployed a task force and inspectorate nationwide to monitor compliance and gather intelligence on illegal gold trading and smuggling.
Mr Gyamfi said the reforms were aimed at addressing long-standing leakages in the ASM sector, where substantial volumes of gold escaped the formal economy through smuggling, under-declaration and informal cross-border trade.
Local refining
Beyond increasing exports, Mr Gyamfi said GoldBod was working to retain more value from gold through local refining.
The CEO added that local refining had increased significantly, with 18.7 tonnes refined locally since August 1 this year.
In October alone, 5.4 tonnes of the 5.7 tonnes of ASM gold purchased had been refined locally.
He said the Board had entered into refining agreements with two privately owned refineries, Gold Coast Refinery and Royal Ghana Gold Refinery.
“These two refineries have progressively and cumulatively refined 25 tonnes of ASM gold purchased and exported by the GoldBod this year. This represents about 30 per cent of total ASM gold exports (85.4 tonnes) from year to date,” he stated.
Mr Gyamfi said GoldBod was pursuing a policy shift from exporting raw minerals towards achieving zero raw mineral exports by 2030.
Jobs, support
He said GoldBod’s institutional, licensing and value-addition reforms also created 4,866 direct jobs, comprising 361 public-sector and 4,505 private-sector positions, with further opportunities expected across the gold value chain.
He announced that GoldBod would introduce an ASM Formalisation and Financing Support Programme next year, in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the University of Mines and Technology (UMAT), with technical support from Rand Refinery of South Africa.
The programme is intended to increase production, revenue and employment while reducing operating costs and environmental degradation.
The CEO added that GoldBod was procuring a blockchain-based traceability system to track gold from legitimate sources through the supply chain and strengthen responsible sourcing.
Mr Gyamfi urged African countries to cooperate on mineral governance, saying national reforms alone could not address cross-border smuggling and other challenges in mineral markets.
He said Ghana’s experience could inform a continental approach that enabled African countries to retain more value from their natural resources.