Ghana Eyes Gold-Backed Leverage Beyond Raw Exports

Sat Aug 22 2026

President John Dramani Mahama says Ghana wants its gold wealth to strengthen the country’s finances, not just its export earnings, as refining and jewellery output expand.

Speaking to Ghida Fakhry on TRT World’s *Bigger Than Five*, Mahama said the government’s push to formalise artisanal and small-scale mining has pulled more gold into official channels and cut losses to smuggling, framing the strategy as part of his wider Accra Reset argument that African economies should use their own resources to reduce dependence on costly external borrowing.

“We’re going one step beyond just exporting the raw gold,” he said.

The formalisation drive runs through GoldBod, the state gold board created to centralise purchases from licensed small-scale miners and control exports. Two refineries are now processing gold domestically before it leaves the country: Gold Coast Refinery, certified to Responsible Jewellery Council standards through a technical partnership with South Africa’s Rand Refinery, and a second facility under an agreement with Royal Ghana Gold Refinery. GoldBod’s chief executive, Sammy Gyamfi, said in August that nearly nine tonnes of Ghanaian gold had been refined locally so far this year, with a larger 600-tonne refinery already under construction.

Mahama’s ambitions extend to jewellery. He wants a dedicated gold-trading district modelled on Dubai’s Gold Souk, an idea GoldBod has since named the “Ghana Gold Village” and targeted for completion in Accra in 2027. Gyamfi has said the board’s own jewellery arm generated GH¢65 million in sales last year and is projecting close to GH¢140 million this year on the back of new investment.

For Mahama, the payoff is leverage rather than volume alone. He has argued separately that stronger African-owned financial institutions and greater use of the continent’s own reserves could lower the cost of financing infrastructure, positioning formalised, value-added gold production as one lever within that broader push to loosen reliance on international capital markets.

Source: https://newsghana.com.gh/