Ghana’s Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has begun formal engagements with Zimbabwe-based Better Brands to establish a dedicated financing centre for artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) operators, in what officials are describing as a significant step toward deepening sector formalisation and improving access to capital for small-scale miners.
At the centre of the discussions is a proposed financing facility aimed specifically at hard rock mining operations, which require higher capital investment than alluvial mining and have historically been underserved by formal financial institutions. The model under discussion would provide miners with access to capital, equipment, and technical services, addressing constraints that have long suppressed productivity and pushed operators toward informal channels.
Beyond financing, the initiative envisions providing miners with access to modern processing infrastructure, including milling equipment, explosives, generators, and fuel, to reduce operational losses and improve gold recovery rates. Officials say the intervention is designed to enhance both output quality and environmental compliance across the ASM value chain.
Better Brands Zimbabwe brings direct operational experience to the partnership. The company is Zimbabwe’s government-designated largest gold-buying agent, with an established track record of aggregating gold from artisanal miners and providing integrated financial, technical, and operational support to small-scale producers. That experience in structuring ASM supply chains is expected to inform the financing models being proposed for Ghana’s sector.
GoldBod, established under Act 1140 in March 2025 as Ghana’s sole authority for buying, selling, and exporting gold and other precious minerals, assumed full trading responsibility for the ASM gold programme from January 2026. The Board has since been pursuing a series of structural reforms aimed at funnelling Ghana’s significant informal gold production into official channels. In 2025, ASM output rose by more than 60 percent to approximately 3.1 million ounces, surpassing industrial mine production for the first time and reinforcing the sector’s growing importance to Ghana’s export economy.
GoldBod is now targeting annual ASM output of 127 metric tonnes over the next three years, a figure that authorities estimate could generate more than $20 billion in annual export earnings at current gold price levels. Achieving that target will require structural improvements in how miners are financed, equipped, and supported, making the Better Brands partnership central to the Board’s longer-term strategy.
The initiative also reflects a wider push to strengthen sector governance and improve traceability within Ghana’s gold value chain, a priority given the significant volumes of ASM gold that have historically left the country through unregulated routes. Ghana lost an estimated $11.4 billion to gold smuggling between 2019 and 2023, according to the non-profit foundation Swissaid.
