Ghana recorded a surge in small-scale gold exports over the first eight months of 2025 as reforms began to yield results, Sammy Gyamfi, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Ghana Gold Board (Ghana GoldBod), said on Tuesday.
“From January to Aug. 2025, small-scale gold exports have hit 66.7 metric tons with an export value of approximately 6.0 billion U.S. dollars,” Gyamfi said during the maiden Mining and Minerals Convention ongoing in Accra, the Ghanaian capital.
According to him, the value of the total output over the period was 6.0 billion U.S. dollars, far higher than the value of 4.6 billion dollars for the 63 metric tons exported in the full year of 2024.
The GoldBod CEO added that the performance means “small-scale gold exports continue to surpass those from the large-scale mining sector, which stood at 65.1 tons with an export value of about 5.6 billion dollars, for the period between January and Aug. 2025.”
In line with the objective of supporting gold reserve accumulation by the Bank of Ghana, Gyamfi said the GoldBod has initiated the local purchase of 20 percent of the gold output of seven large-scale mining companies in the country, with the central bank purchasing nearly 100 kilograms of large-scale gold to augment the gold reserves of the country.
The official added that foreign exchange accumulation from gold exports this year, particularly from the small-scale sector, has significantly strengthened Ghana’s reserves, improved the country’s balance of payments, and provided critical support to the Ghana cedi currency.
The early successes, he said, underlined the strategic role of the GoldBod in Ghana’s long-term development and prosperity, cautioning, however, that the institution is still in the preparatory stages of fully deploying its operational mandate, “and significant untapped potential remains.”
“But more than just the numbers, we at the GoldBod are proving something powerful, which is that African-born corporations can lead globally, not merely follow. These milestones are not ours alone to celebrate. They symbolize what Africa can achieve when we combine resource wealth with bold thinking,” Gyamfi emphasized.
He pledged the determination of the GoldBod to sustainably increase Ghana’s gold output and develop the country’s gold supply chain responsibly, from the heartland to global vaults, empowering communities while delivering sustainable and transformational returns.
“This is why we have launched a mining support program to leverage our mandate to attract direct investments into mining, particularly for the procurement of environmentally friendly mining equipment to optimize production and recovery for the maximization of national benefits,” Gyamfi added.
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama signed the GoldBod bill into law in April, making the entity the sole regulator overseeing the buying, selling, and export of small-scale gold mined in Ghana, Africa’s largest gold exporter.