Ghana must overhaul its mining model to give citizens greater ownership of mines, expand local processing and ensure that mineral-rich communities receive a fairer share of the wealth generated from the country’s gold resources, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has said.
Mr Gyamfi said increasing gold production alone would not deliver the level of economic transformation Ghana requires if ownership, financing, processing and other high-value activities continued to benefit interests outside the country.
He therefore called for deliberate policies to increase Ghanaian participation in exploration, mine development, mining services, refining, fabrication and other downstream industries.
Speaking at the National Mining Dialogue in Accra under the theme, “Rethinking the Social License to Operate,” Mr Gyamfi said Ghana must confront the persistent situation in which citizens remain largely on the sidelines of ownership and value creation despite mining’s significant contribution to the economy.
“Production without ownership is limited. Production without value addition is leakage. Production without community transformation is a broken social contract,” he said.
Ghana Must Retain More Gold Value
Mr Gyamfi said Ghana’s large-scale mining industry had historically been dominated by foreign interests, allowing substantial portions of the value generated from the country’s minerals to leave through ownership structures, financing, imported inputs, offshore services and limited local processing.
He argued that successful mining economies did not depend solely on increasing production but deliberately connected mineral extraction to local ownership, infrastructure, industrialisation and domestic businesses.
“Own more, refine more, process more, fabricate more and retain more,” he said.
He called for stronger support for Ghanaian capital to participate in exploration, mine development, mining services and downstream processing.
The country, he said, must develop refining, jewellery manufacturing, fabrication and other industries around its mineral resources rather than continue exporting significant quantities of gold without capturing the full value associated with the commodity.
Mining Communities Must Feel the Wealth
Mr Gyamfi also questioned why communities that produce Ghana’s mineral wealth continued to struggle with inadequate potable water, poor roads, youth unemployment and limited economic opportunities.
He said gold must be treated not only as a strategic national asset but also as a resource that should transform the lives of people living in mining communities.
Mining communities, he argued, should become economic partners rather than merely providing land for extraction.
“Mining communities must be treated as development partners and economic shareholders and not mere land donors,” he said.
He called for communities to participate in exploration services, logistics, fabrication, environmental services, refining, jewellery production and other businesses connected to mining.
Local Businesses Must Get Mining Opportunities
Mr Gyamfi urged mining companies to deliberately create opportunities for businesses in host communities to supply goods and services to their operations.
He identified transportation, catering, security, equipment maintenance, environmental monitoring, reclamation, agricultural supplies, housing and local commerce as areas where indigenous enterprises could participate.
He also proposed clearly defined commitments on local employment, procurement, enterprise development and infrastructure for new mining projects.
Such commitments, he said, should be backed by definite arrangements rather than being left entirely to discretionary corporate social responsibility programmes.
GoldBod Targets Formalisation of Small-Scale Mining
On artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), Mr Gyamfi called for a distinction between responsible miners and operators whose activities destroy water bodies, forests and farmlands.
He said responsible ASM operators should be supported with appropriate equipment while traceability, formalisation and regulatory compliance were strengthened.
According to him, GoldBod’s efforts to formalise gold trading have brought about 170 tonnes of ASM gold into formal export channels since 2025, generating more than US$17 billion in foreign exchange.
He said nearly nine tonnes of gold aggregated by GoldBod had also been refined locally this year, helping Ghana retain more value from its gold production.
Ghana Gold Village to Drive Manufacturing
As part of the value-addition agenda, Mr Gyamfi announced plans for the establishment of the Ghana Gold Village in partnership with the private sector.
The project, to be implemented through GoldBod Jewellery Limited, will support jewellery manufacturing, gold fabrication, skills development, enterprise creation and access to international markets for Ghanaian-made gold products.
GoldBod expects the initiative to help shift the industry from an extraction-focused model towards one in which more gold is refined, processed and transformed into high-value products locally.
Gold Tokenisation to Open Ownership to Citizens
GoldBod is also preparing to introduce a gold tokenisation programme in 2027 to broaden access to gold ownership.
The initiative is expected to allow Ghanaians and other Africans with relatively modest amounts of capital to participate in gold-backed investment opportunities through fractional ownership.
Mr Gyamfi said the programme was intended to ensure that ordinary citizens could share in the country’s mineral wealth rather than remain spectators in the gold economy.
“We must all own and share in the mineral wealth of our nation,” he said.
Gold Remains Critical to Ghana’s Economy
Mr Gyamfi said Ghana produced approximately 5.94 million ounces of gold in 2025, with artisanal and small-scale miners accounting for about 3.11 million ounces, or 52.4 per cent of total production.
Gold also accounted for approximately US$20.2 billion of Ghana’s US$32 billion merchandise exports in 2025, representing about 63.1 per cent of export earnings.
Despite gold’s contribution to foreign exchange, international reserves and macroeconomic stability, Mr Gyamfi said Ghana’s success should ultimately be measured by how much of the wealth generated by the mineral remained within the domestic economy.
He said the country’s mining policy must increasingly focus on who owns mining assets, who provides services, who processes the minerals, who manufactures finished products and, ultimately, who benefits from Ghana’s mineral wealth.
