The government has set up a 21-member technical committee to develop a comprehensive and robust legal and operational framework for the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod).

The board will serve as a vehicle for achieving currency stability through the structured purchasing and management of the country’s gold resources.

The GoldBod will act as the sole purchaser of gold from the legal small-scale mining sector through licensed aggregators and local traders and be mandated to regulate and streamline the sector.

Its establishment will also have exclusive legal rights as the sole assayer, seller and exporter of gold purchased from small-scale miners.

Committee

The committee, with diverse expertise and industry experience, is expected to work on the proposed GoldBod Bill and associated amendment of bills and present them to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice by February 13, this year.

The Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, who inaugurated the committee yesterday, said the Attorney-General would do the official drafting of the GoldBod Bill and the associated amendment bills and lay them before Parliament by March 1, this year.

Dr Forson said barring any hitches, the GoldBod would commence business by March 8, this year.

Membership

The members of the committee are the acting Managing Director of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), Sammy Gyamfi; the legal counsel to the President, Marietta Agyeiwaa Brew; legal practitioner, Dr Abdul Baasit Aziz Bamba; former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Johnson Asiamah; a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Minerals Commission, Dr Tony Aubyn; and the Head of Financial Markets, Standard Chartered Bank, Joojo Kakra Bannerman.

The others are the CEO of the Minerals Commission, Martin Kwaku Ayisi; Manager, Legal at Minerals Commission, Joseph Iroko; the Manager of small-scale mining at the Minerals Commission, Eric Bukari; the Deputy Manager of the Gold Desk at the Bank of Ghana, Paul Elikplim Bleboo; the Chief Technical Officer of the Mineral Income Investment Fund (MIIF), Kwabena Agyemang Barning; the Director of Corporate Planning at PMMC, Ernest Asiedu Odami; and the Head of Business Development at PMMC, Sharon Quaye.

The rest are the Director of Finance at PMMC, Mohammed Abubakar; the Head of Field Operations at PMMC, Bernard Samuel M. Annan; a geologist and private legal practitioner, Richard Kofi Afenu; the Chairman of Chamber of Bullion Traders, Ghana, Kwaku Effah Asuahene; the General Secretary of Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners (GNASSM), Godwin Nichelsen Armah; Gold Trading Consultant, Roger Kwakye; and representatives from the Office of the Attorney-General and the Finance Ministry.

The GoldBod is a flagship initiative envisioned by President John Dramani Mahama for economic revitalisation.

Ghana derives substantial foreign exchange earnings from gold. However, the benefits accrued from the precious metal remain minimal, often coming at a steep environmental cost.

Presently, the PMMC has the mandate to purchase and sell gold, but that mandate is not exclusive to it.

The BoG also purchases gold through PMMC and other private aggregators under initiatives such as “gold for forex,” “gold for reserves”, gold for oil,” and “gold for cash,” among others.

MIIF, in spite of the primary mandate to optimise mineral investment, has also ventured into gold buying, incurring substantial financial losses.

Also, numerous Ghanaians and foreigners with export licences and/or gold-buying licences are active in the gold-purchasing and export market.

New dawn

Dr Forson stated that the "fragmented, uncoordinated and unregulated system" had led to widespread gold smuggling and deprived the state of much-needed foreign earnings.

He said it was in a bid to address those issues that the Ghana Gold Board would be mandated to regulate and streamline the sector.

The Finance Minister said the full benefits of gold resources could be maximised by optimising every stage of the value chain — from extraction to refining, value addition and marketing, both locally and internationally.

Dr Forson said the GoldBod would serve as a specialised agency to ensure effective marketing of the country’s gold resources.

"This will involve the implementation of a deliberate programme to formalise gold trading from the small-scale mining industry and promote traceability with the aim of enhancing the international acceptability of gold from Ghana,” Dr Forson stated.

The Minister of Finance emphasised that the GoldBod would not assume the regulatory mandate of the Minerals Commission over the small-scale mining sector.

Key objectives

Dr Forson explained the key objective of the GoldBod to include formalising the trading of gold from the small-scale mining sector, promoting traceability and pursuing London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) certification.

He added that the government would provide a revolving fund enough to purchase all gold from the small-scale mining sector.

Dr Forson said although Ghana exported nearly $5 billion in gold from legal small-scale mining in 2024, research had shown that the value of gold smuggled out of the country from small-scale mining was nearly double the official figure, accounting for significant foreign exchange losses.

Therefore, streamlining the small-scale mining sector, curbing smuggling and directing gold purchases through formal channels would help the country to improve its foreign exchange accumulation and help stabilise the Ghana Cedi.

The Finance Minister stressed that the establishment of the GoldBod was a critical tool for economic revitalisation and currency stability.