Ghana targets to channel about 127 metric tones of Gold yearly artisana and from small scale mining(ASM) into official trade, according to a Reuters report.
The country reformed the gold mining sector in a bid to increase forex earnings, and losses through smuggling, the report qouted the country’s finance minister Cassiel ATo Forson as saying.
African countries lost billions of dollars worth gold due smuggling through pours borders, reaching to global bubs including Dubai.
Ghana, the continent’s top gold producer earnes about 11.4 billion dollar over 2019–2023, according to non-profit foundation Swissaid.
Artisanal Gold to fetch 20 billion annually
Ghana Gold Board would be required to buy a minimum of 2.45 tons of AsM gold weekly, consolidate purchase of gold into formal market worth 20 billion dollar.
The push follows a surge in ASM output, driven by soaring gold prices and Ghana’s creation of the GoldBod in 2025, which helped to lift national production to about 186 tons that year.
Forson said that from next month under the new policy, GoldBod will take full responsibility for negotiating off‑take agreements and selling all ASM gold it procures. The regulator will raise financing to hold three to four weeks’ worth of gold purchases and deploy derivative and hedging tools to manage price risk. The Bank of Ghana currently funds ASM gold purchases.
The Bank of Ghana and GoldBod will also sign a deal requiring all foreign exchange from the programme to be sold only to the central bank at an agreed rate.
The minister said formalisation efforts will be extended to environmental and enforcement efforts, traceability systems, expansion of local refining capacity and reforms to lower operating costs.
Ghana is also pushing ahead with reforms to the mining sector’s financial regime, which large‑scale producers say will choke
