Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board, Sammy Gyamfi, said the country’s recent reforms have recovered gold worth approximately US$11.4 bn that had escaped official export records between 2019 and 2023. The figure comes from a SWISSAID analysis of UN Comtrade mirror data, which identified a 229‑tonne gap between Ghana’s reported gold exports and the imports declared by trading partners.
Gyamfi highlighted that the discrepancy showed how significant volumes of Ghanaian gold had moved beyond the country’s foreign exchange system. He recalled that recorded small‑scale gold exports fell from 75.7 tonnes in 2018 to 53.4 tonnes in 2019 and 39.3 tonnes in 2020. The introduction of a three‑per‑cent withholding tax on unprocessed small‑scale gold saw official exports plunge to 3.4 tonnes in 2021, worth US$185 million.
Speaking at the African Minerals Policy Forum – Mining in Motion 2026, Gyamfi said the gold beneath Ghana’s soil had not disappeared, nor had production stopped; the trade had simply moved beyond official view. He blamed fragmented trading arrangements, weak regulatory oversight and ineffective aggregation and foreign exchange repatriation systems for the leakages. The reforms aim to bring more of the country’s gold trade into the formal economy and secure greater benefits for Ghanaians.
With the reforms now in place, Gyamfi expects continued recovery of lost gold and a more transparent, regulated small‑scale mining sector. The Ghana Gold Board will monitor progress and report on further gains in the coming months.
