A new era of order and transparency is dawning in Ghana’s vital gold trade, as the newly established Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) prepares to unleash its full force against rampant smuggling and disarray. Sammy Gyamfi, Chief Executive Officer of GoldBod, declared on Tuesday at the Mining in Motion Summit that the agency is strategically positioned to streamline operations and ensure Ghana reaps the full benefits of its precious mineral wealth.
He revealed that extensive nationwide consultations underscored an overwhelming consensus for a unified, central body to regulate the gold sector, which he candidly described as having been “chaotic and poorly coordinated.”
“All the patriotic Ghanaians we engaged and the various civil society organisations saw GoldBod as an imperative—an urgent imperative—to stop this mess,” he asserted, highlighting widespread support for the transformative agency.
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Before GoldBod’s inception, the gold trading landscape was plagued by fragmentation. Multiple state agencies operated with minimal coordination, creating gaping regulatory loopholes that illicit gold smugglers readily exploited. This regulatory vacuum allowed vast quantities of Ghana’s gold to leave the country without proper accountability or the associated foreign exchange revenue.
Now, with GoldBod firmly in place, the paradigm has shifted. “We now have a central agency streamlining and structuring gold trading, licensing all players involved in the trade and ensuring that everybody adheres to one common code of conduct—on responsible sourcing, legal exports, and so on,” Gyamfi explained.
This unified approach is not merely about eliminating irregularities; it is a critical strategic move to ensure Ghana retains the crucial foreign exchange revenue generated by its gold exports—an indispensable lifeline for national development. “This ensures that we can get the forex associated with the gold we buy and the revenue that we desperately need for the development of the country,” Sammy Gyamfi emphasized.
GoldBod was officially established under the GoldBod Act, 2025 (Act 1140), as a pivotal component of the government’s ambitious economic revitalisation agenda. Its core mandate is to curb smuggling, inject transparency into the gold supply chain, and significantly boost Ghana’s foreign reserves.
Envisioned as the sole central authority, GoldBod will oversee the entire spectrum of operations for gold from small-scale miners, including purchase, assay, sale, and export. By consolidating these functions under one powerful entity, the initiative seeks to rigorously streamline operations, effectively curb illegal activities like gold smuggling, and guarantee that all legitimate gold transactions contribute directly and positively to Ghana’s foreign exchange coffers.