Ghana has recorded a huge gold trade leakage, in the last few years, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has stated.

Speaking at the African Minerals Policy Forum – Mining in Motion 2026, Mr Gyamfi noted that these leakages were recorded before Ghana’s brought small-scale gold trade under a formal, regulated system to stop smuggling, improve oversight, and ensure the country receives the full value and foreign exchange from its gold exports.

Mr Gyamfi cited a SWISSAID analysis of UN Comtrade mirror data which found a 229-tonne gap, valued at approximately US$11.4 billion, between Ghana’s reported gold exports and the corresponding imports declared by its trading partners from 2019 to 2023.

According to him, this discrepancy or difference in records indicated how the country lost substantial volumes of gold without proper records citing its impact on Ghana’s foreign exchange system.

He also recalled that recorded small-scale gold exports fell from 75.7 tonnes in 2018 to 53.4 tonnes in 2019 and 39.3 tonnes in 2020.

Following the introduction of a three per cent withholding tax on unprocessed small-scale gold, official exports plunged to 3.4 tonnes in 2021, worth US$185 million.

“The gold beneath our soil had not disappeared, nor had production stopped; the trade had simply moved beyond official view,” Mr Gyamfi said.

Gyamfi said the problem stemmed from poor coordination among gold traders, gaps in regulatory supervision and weaknesses in systems for collecting gold and returning export earnings to Ghana. He said GoldBod’s reforms seek to improve oversight of the trade and ensure the country retains greater economic benefits from its gold resources.

History of GoldBod

The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) is a body corporate established by an Act of Parliament (ACT 1140) in the year 2025 to oversee, regulate and undertake the buying, selling, assaying, refining, exporting and other related activities in respect of Gold and other Precious Minerals in Ghana.

The GoldBod per section 78 of ACT 1140, took over the rights, obligations, assets, liabilities and workforce of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) Limited, which is an offshoot of the Ghana Diamond Marketing Board.

In 1963, the Ghana Diamond Marketing Board was established and charged with the responsibility of purchasing and marketing Ghana’s diamonds.

In 1965, by a Legislative Instrument (LI) 401, the Ghana Diamond Marketing Board was incorporated as a State-Owned Enterprise (SOE).

Upon the promulgation of the diamonds decree (NRCD 32) in 1972, LI 916 was enacted to change the company’s name to Diamond Marketing Corporation.

In 1989, PNDC Law 219 was enacted to yet again change the Company’s name to the Precious Minerals Marketing Corporation with enhanced functions to grade, assay, value gold, diamonds and other precious minerals of the country.

In the year 2000, the Corporation was converted by the Statutory Corporations Conversion to Companies Act (ACT 461) to a Limited Liability Company to operate under the Ghana Companies Code Act (ACT 179) 1963, as Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) Limited, with the same functions.

In the year 2016, the PMMC was appointed the national assayer by the government of Ghana.

To strengthen industry regulation and optimize national benefits, the Ghana GoldBod was established on 2 April, 2025 by the government of Ghana to restructure and streamline the precious mineral trading sector of Ghana.

The GoldBod initiative is a product of extensive stakeholder consultations and aims at maximising foreign exchange inflows, gold reserve accumulation and value addition for sustainable growth and transformation.