The move by the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) to roll out a blockchain-powered track-and-trace system by the end of 2026 to ensure every gram of purchased gold links to verified legal sources and to prevent illegal mining [galamsey] gold from entering the national supply chain is on course.
According to the Chief Executive Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, GoldBod was currently undertaking a national competitive tendering process for a gold tracing system expected to be concluded before the end of 2026.
This will enable GoldBod to establish a full value chain track-and-trace system under Section 31 of the Gold Board Act, aimed at discouraging gold from illegal mining from mixing up with what the GoldBod purchases.
He was speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday (August, 19, 2026) and said the proposed system would enable GoldBod to trace gold purchases to their mines of origin and help establish the source of gold bought through licensed aggregators.
Key traceability measures
The key traceability measures iniclude deploying to track gold origin transparently from small-scale and large-scale miners, setting up buying centres, setting up structured district gold buying centres to monitor transactions closely and ensure compliance by periodic audits or checks on licensed operators to block fronts for illicit mining.
At the press briefing on Wednesday, Mr Gyamfi said the absence of such technology had made it difficult to verify the source of gold bought through licensed aggregators.
He said once the system was operational, Parliament would be asked to legislate on how gold suspected to have originated from illegal small scale mining, commonly known as galamsey, should be treated.
Reclamation
He said GoldBod had planned to extend its forest reclamation corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme to at least 150 hectares of degraded forest reserves in 2027, following a directive from President John Mahama.
Mr Gyamfi said the reclamation programme had already begun with a project covering 50 hectares of degraded land in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve near Samreboi in the Western Region currently ongoing.
The project was formally signed on June, 16, 2026, with the Ghana Armed Forces Engineers Regiment being paid GH¢27.9 million for earthworks, including pit filling, grading and land stabilisation.
He said another GH¢7.2 million had been allocated to the Forestry Commission for afforestation and revegetation over a 10 year period, with about GH¢2.2 million earmarked for the first phase of planting.
The two components bring the total contracted value of the project to about GH¢35.1 million.
Mr Gyamfi said the Board was “paying them over GH¢35 million ” for the reclamation work, which he described as the first phase of the programme.
He said President Mahama had directed the Board to extend the reclamation programme to at least 150 hectares of degraded forest reserves in 2027.
Mr Gyamfi said the responsibility for reclaiming mined land legally rested with licensed miners, who were required under Ghana’s mining regulations to cover pits, plant trees and, in some cases, post environmental bonds with the Environmental Protection Agency.
He acknowledged that enforcement of the requirement had historically been weak.
He said GoldBod had decided to use part of its profits for reclamation as a corporate social responsibility measure rather than wait for the enforcement problem to be resolved.
