A leading governance and extractives expert has defended the Ghana Gold Board against allegations that the state agency enables illegal mining, arguing that critics miss the structural reforms the entity pursues while inheriting challenges that predate its creation by decades.
Dr. Steve Manteaw, Co Chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, insists that while risks of illegally mined gold entering formal markets cannot be denied, blaming GoldBod for problems embedded in Ghana’s mining sector for generations ignores reality. The expert, who provides technical support to government through the UK Ghana Gold Programme, maintains that the Board deals exclusively with licensed buyers and therefore presumes gold purchased comes from legitimate sources.
“The GoldBod deals exclusively with licensed buyers, and therefore presumes all the gold being purchased on its behalf are from legitimate sources,” Dr. Manteaw indicated. “One can, however, not deny the possibility of some galamsey gold finding its way into the supply chain.”
The controversy surrounding GoldBod intensified after the agency generated over USD 8 billion in foreign exchange between January and October 2025, exporting 81,719.23 kilograms of gold. This marks sharp increase from USD 4.61 billion recorded in 2024 and nearly quadrupled the USD 2.19 billion achieved in 2023, raising questions about whether such dramatic growth stems partly from previously illicit gold entering formal channels.
Critics, including opposition parliamentarians, have raised concerns that GoldBod might indirectly legitimize gold sourced from illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey. These worries stem from belief that the initiative’s gold purchasing activities could open routes for illicitly mined gold to enter the formal economy, particularly given Ghana’s widespread illegal mining activities affecting over 60 percent of the country’s water bodies through mercury and cyanide contamination.
Ghana’s galamsey crisis has escalated into what many describe as national emergency, with unregulated artisanal and small scale mining causing severe environmental destruction and social instability. The practice, derived from the phrase “gather them and sell,” involves mostly untrained young men digging small working pits, tunnels, and sluices by hand in gold rich areas such as Ashanti, Eastern, and Western regions.
Dr. Manteaw argues such claims ignore the structure and intent of the program. He maintains that rather than being complicit, GoldBod should be commended for taking steps to clean up systems it inherited. Among these steps is planned gold traceability system designed to track gold from source to export, ensuring that only responsibly mined gold enters formal markets.
“Credit should rather be given to the GoldBod for its commitment to introduce a gold traceability system to encourage responsible mineral sourcing,” he remarked, emphasizing that infiltration of galamsey gold predates GoldBod’s creation as legacy situation the entity inherited rather than created.
The defense comes as President John Mahama’s administration pursues aggressive strategy against illegal mining, having banned foreigners from trading gold inside Ghana to crack down on smuggling networks. The Ghana Gold Board Act (Act 1140), passed in March and signed into law April 2, revoked all licenses previously issued by the Precious Minerals Marketing Company except those granted to large scale mining companies.
Prince Kwame Minkah, GoldBod spokesman, announced that all foreigners were notified to exit the local gold trading market by April 30, 2025. “We are moving heaven and earth so that they dance to the music of Ghanaian law,” Minkah stated resolutely, noting that ten Chinese nationals arrested in July for illegal gold trading would be imprisoned in Ghana if convicted rather than simply deported as occurred previously.
Ghana’s gold reserves at the central bank reached record high of 39.7 tons in August 2025, a fourfold increase in just two years, helping the Ghanaian cedi strengthen 30 percent since Mahama took power. Official gold exports almost doubled year over year to USD 5.1 billion during the first six months of 2025, suggesting the crackdown may be redirecting previously smuggled gold into formal channels that generate government revenue and foreign exchange.
Dr. Manteaw emphasized that GoldBod’s operations are guided by international best practices. The Board follows OECD guidelines on responsible mineral sourcing and Financial Action Task Force rules addressing illicit financial flows, money laundering, and financing of organized crime. GoldBod is also exploring avenues to obtain London Bullion Market Association certification, a globally recognized benchmark for responsible gold sourcing and ethical trade.
Yet critics, including Bright Simons, head of research at IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, point to structural conflicts inherent in GoldBod’s dual mandate. “Being both regulator and commercial arm entails structural conflicts,” Simons argued, noting that GoldBod’s remit to prevent illicit gold from entering the market “is in tension” with its role sourcing as much gold as possible to maximize state revenues. “It’s a really unwieldy beast in that regard.”
Mahama plays down any conflict, pointing to arrests of foreign gold smugglers while celebrating revenue increases. The president acknowledges complexity of the challenge, highlighting that more than 1.5 million Ghanaians work in galamsey. “So there’s also an issue of livelihoods,” Mahama told TIME in his Accra office. “If you just stop them, what alternatives are you giving?”
The livelihood argument resonates in country where youth unemployment and lack of job security drive people into illegal mining. Young university graduates rarely find work, and when they do, it hardly sustains them. The result is that youth go extraordinary lengths to earn living for themselves and families, particularly as global gold prices breached record high of USD 4,000 per ounce, making any other labor appear foolish by comparison.
Ghana, Africa’s largest gold producer and sixth largest globally, has long struggled to translate mineral wealth into broad based economic prosperity. The government sees GoldBod as critical step to capture more value from gold production, especially from artisanal mining sector contributing nearly USD 5 billion annually in exports but historically operating outside formal regulatory frameworks.
In March, Finance Minister Cassel Ato Forson said government allocated USD 279 million to GoldBod to purchase and export at least three metric tons of gold per week from artisanal mining operations. Transactions are conducted exclusively in Ghanaian cedis and priced based on rates from Bank of Ghana, a mechanism intended to increase foreign exchange inflows and stabilize the depreciating national currency.
While aimed primarily at increasing fiscal revenues, the new law could also serve as mechanism to limit avenues for illicit gold sales and environmental degradation. Galamsey has led to extensive deforestation, mercury pollution, and contamination of major water bodies including Pra, Ankobra, and Birim rivers. The practice perpetuates child labor, creates unsafe working conditions, and generates social unrest while eroding trust in government institutions tasked with enforcement.
Environmental activists remain skeptical that GoldBod alone can solve problems resulting from weak enforcement, corruption, and regulatory gaps sustaining the illicit gold trade. Oliver Barker Vormawor, who led September 2024 protests against galamsey that resulted in 53 arrests including his own detention for weeks, questions whether Mahama’s government will prove more aggressive on the issue than predecessors.
“There isn’t any roadmap yet from Mahama on how to tackle the problem,” Vormawor, who once served at the United Nations as legal officer, told Al Jazeera. “It’s really difficult to say that his government will be more aggressive on this because even as the opposition party, they were very tentative and uncomfortable taking up the issue.”
The September protests demanded presidential order to stop all illegal mining activities, particularly in forest reserves and along key rivers. Yet Mahama stopped short of promising to reverse small scale licenses recently approved or put hold on new concessions, pointing out that small scale mining provides means of livelihood and can be done responsibly with proper technology and training.
Chinese nationals have been widely implicated in the galamsey trade, frequently operating alongside local actors and allegedly flouting environmental and labor regulations. While the new law doesn’t explicitly target particular nationality, it’s expected to curtail foreign involvement in illegal gold sourcing. In February 2025, journalist Akwasi Agyei Annim was attacked while documenting illegal mining in Breman Adomanya forest, where Chinese and Ghanaian miners had encroached on 261 acres despite police awareness.
Industry watchers note that training journalists to better understand and report on extractive sector issues, as pursued through the Africa Extractives Media Fellowship launched in Accra, could prove crucial. More accurate, data driven, and human centered reporting might help citizens hold institutions accountable, improve policy debates, and attract responsible investment prioritizing environmental protection and community development alongside profit extraction.
Dr. Manteaw called on citizens and stakeholders to support the initiative rather than tear it down. “I know these as facts because I’ve been involved in consultations around them, and I’ve been offering technical support through the UK Ghana Gold Programme, a UK Home Office support to the Government of Ghana in dealing with the illegalities in the small scale mining sector,” he stated.
“Let all well meaning Ghanaians rally around this bold initiative that is fast becoming the envy of the world,” he added, arguing that responsible gold trade isn’t just about government policy or investor confidence but about national integrity and ensuring Ghana’s mineral wealth becomes blessing for its people rather than burden on its conscience.
Whether GoldBod successfully navigates the tension between maximizing revenues and preventing illegal gold from entering formal channels will determine if the initiative achieves its ambitious goals. The dramatic revenue increases suggest the agency is capturing gold that previously bypassed formal systems, but whether that gold originates from legal or illegal sources remains contested terrain where verification systems promised by GoldBod become crucial.
Ghana opened its first commercial gold refinery in August 2024 and hopes to become only the second nation on the continent after South Africa to have refinery certified by benchmark London Bullion Market Association Good Delivery List, a credential necessary to access the world’s largest gold market in the United Kingdom. Achieving such certification would require demonstrating robust supply chain controls preventing illegally mined gold from being processed and exported.
The debate over GoldBod reflects broader tensions in resource rich developing nations attempting to formalize artisanal mining sectors that provide livelihoods for millions while causing environmental devastation. Eliminating illegal mining entirely without providing alternative employment appears politically and economically impossible, yet allowing it to continue unchecked threatens irreversible environmental damage and perpetuates unsafe working conditions including child labor.
Success will require not just institutional reforms like GoldBod and traceability systems but also sustained political will, adequate enforcement resources, alternative livelihood programs, and cultural shift recognizing that short term gold revenues cannot justify long term environmental destruction. Whether Ghana achieves this balance remains to be seen as the Mahama administration navigates competing pressures from environmental activists, mining communities, opposition politicians, and international partners watching closely.
