GOLDBOD created to end fragmentation in Ghana’s gold trade – Sammy Gyamfi
Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GOLDBOD), Sammy Gyamfi, has explained that the institution was created to bring order to what he described as a fragmented and poorly coordinated gold trading system in Ghana.
According to him, too many institutions and private actors were previously operating in the sector at the same time, making effective regulation difficult and creating room for leakages.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express Business Edition on Thursday, the GOLDBOD CEO noted that Ghana has lost a substantial amount of revenue as a result of leakages in the gold trading system, which prompted the creation on a single central body with a clear “legal mandate.”
“The Gold Board was introduced as that single centralized agency that will oversee, monitor, regulate and undertake the buying, selling, assaying and exports of gold, because the old arrangement had led to a very uncoordinated fragmented sector, this lack of central control affected transparency and efficiency in the trade,” he said.
He further explained that the reform was meant to stop the “overlapping responsibilities” between state agencies and private aggregators, adding that centralising the trade under one body gives government a better chance of supervising transactions, tightening compliance and reducing losses in “one of the country’s key economic pillars.”
“The Bank of Ghana was into gold trading and was working with the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) at the time and other private aggregators, then you have another state institution called Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) also involved in gold trading with private aggregators, the overlapping responsibilities and activities led to this uncoordinated sector which in turn led to a lot of leakages
“The Introduction of GOLDBOD has essentially changed the way Ghana manages mineral trading, now no agency in Ghana has the power to do anything in reference to gold trading, the powers of the minister to grant gold trading licenses have all been repealed, MIIF no longer involves in gold trading – policy-wise, even the Bank of Ghana now does gold trading through the Gold Board” he added.
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