Africa-Press – Ghana. President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday outlined Ghana’s experience with the Ghana Gold Board (Goldbod) to the Zambian National Assembly, highlighting its role in strengthening national control over gold exports and boosting foreign exchange earnings.
The Ghana Gold Board is the sole authority mandated to buy, sell, weigh, grade, assay, value and export gold and other precious minerals in Ghana.
President Mahama, accompanied by his wife, First Lady Lordina Mahama, is on a three-day State Visit to Zambia at the invitation of his Zambian counterpart, President Hakainde Hichilema.
Addressing the Zambian Parliament, President Mahama said Africa must boldly leverage its comparative advantage in natural resources to achieve economic transformation.
He said African countries must exercise greater sovereignty over their natural resources if they were to create sustainable prosperity for their people.
“The era of parceling out large-scale concessions to speculators who then flip them for huge profits must end,” he said.
“We have the know-how; the technology and capital are available. Indigenous companies must be encouraged to participate in the extractive sector.
“We must support our indigenous private sector to capture the commanding heights of our economies.”
President Mahama said mining and the extractive sector play a significant role in Ghana’s economy, adding that, like Zambia and many other African countries, Ghana is endowed with critical minerals such as gold, bauxite and manganese, but historically added very little value to them locally.
“My country is changing that narrative. Ghana established the Gold Board in April last year to take control of and regulate gold exports,” he said.
President Mahama reiterated that the Gold Board had sole authority to export gold from Ghana.
He said since the Board’s establishment, gold exports from the artisanal and small-scale mining sector had increased from 63 tonnes to 104 tonnes within the past 10 months.
President Mahama said the increase had generated more than 10 billion dollars in foreign exchange earnings over the period.
“We are taking steps to domesticate the value addition of our minerals,” he stated.
The President said the Board had recently signed an agreement with a local gold refinery to refine about one tonne of gold per week, rather than exporting raw doré gold.
He said Ghana also aimed to commence local processing of manganese and bauxite instead of exporting the raw ores.
President Mahama said the government had replaced the flat-rate royalty system for minerals with a sliding scale ranging from five per cent to 12 per cent, depending on international market prices.
