NewzThe Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has highlighted the scale of gold trade leakages Ghana faced before the introduction of reforms to formalise the artisanal and small-scale mining sector. 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. He said the discrepancy illustrated how substantial volumes of Ghanaian gold had escaped official export records and the country’s foreign exchange system.
Speaking at the African Minerals Policy Forum – Mining in Motion 2026, 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.
He attributed the leakages to fragmented trading arrangements, weak regulatory oversight and ineffective aggregation and foreign exchange repatriation systems, arguing that GoldBod’s reforms were designed to bring more of the country’s gold trade into the formal economy and ensure greater benefits for Ghanaians. The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has aggregated and exported 85.4 tonnes of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) gold valued at US$11.6 billion between January 1 and October 20, 2026, Chief Executive Officer Sammy Gyamfi has announced. The figure exceeds the 76 tonnes of large-scale gold exports valued at US$11.1 billion recorded over the same period.
Speaking at the African Minerals Policy Forum – Mining in Motion 2026, Mr Gyamfi said GoldBod was on course to surpass its 2025 performance, when ASM gold exports reached approximately 104 tonnes, up from 63 tonnes in 2024. He attributed the increase to reforms introduced to formalise the gold trade, strengthen regulation and curb smuggling. “The Ghana Gold Board was thus established by President Mahama as an integrated response to this hydra-headed legacy problem,” he said, explaining that the board had become the sole buyer, seller, exporter and statutory national assayer of gold in Ghana.
Mr Gyamfi described the gains as a “production claw back”, saying the reforms had recovered gold that was already being produced but had previously been lost to smuggling and illegal trading. He added that the US$10.8 billion generated by the ASM sector in foreign exchange in 2025 supported foreign exchange market stability, reserve accumulation and the cedi’s appreciation.
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