Ghana lost 229 tonnes of gold valued at 11.4 billion dollars between 2019 and 2023 through unrecorded trade channels. The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board, Sammy Gyamfi, disclosed the figures on 20 October 2026. He announced that sweeping regulatory reforms have now begun capturing these previously hidden mineral flows into official national accounts.
The massive trade gap emerged from a comparison of Ghanaian export filings against foreign import records compiled by research group SWISSAID and the United Nations Comtrade database. Small-scale gold exports dropped sharply from 75.7 tonnes in 2018 down to 53.4 tonnes in 2019 and 39.3 tonnes in 2020. The decline worsened in 2021 when the government introduced a 3 percent withholding tax on unprocessed gold from small miners. Official small-scale shipments crashed to just 3.4 tonnes worth 185 million dollars during 2021 as traders moved their sales underground to dodge the tax.
The missing mineral volumes deprived the Bank of Ghana of vital foreign exchange reserves needed to stabilise the national currency. Ghana has historically ranked as the leading gold producer in Africa, yet fragmented local supply chains allowed billions of dollars to leave without proper inspection. Smugglers moved gold through unmonitored overland borders to neighbouring trading hubs. This loss of export revenue weakened state finances and reduced government income during severe economic pressures across West Africa between 2020 and 2024.
Speaking at the African Minerals Policy Forum in October 2026, Sammy Gyamfi explained that miners never actually halted work during those years. The gold beneath our soil had not disappeared, nor had production stopped, Sammy Gyamfi stated. He confirmed that weak aggregation systems and poor foreign exchange repatriation rules let traders conduct business entirely outside state view.
GoldBod plans to use formal trading centres and strict buyer rules to secure future mineral revenue for the national treasury. Tracking every ounce of precious metal will generate essential foreign currency for the central bank and protect domestic mining employment. Market analysts and international lenders will now watch whether the board can maintain export momentum and eliminate untaxed border smuggling through 2027.