CLEARING THE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE GOLDBOD (PART 2)
CLAIM 2: UNDER THE GOLDBOD, A PERSON INCLUDING A CHIEF, WILL REQUIRE A LICENSE TO HOLD OR KEEP GOLD, JEWELRY AND OTHER GOLD PRODUCTS. AND THAT FAILURE TO DO THAT, CONSTITUTES A CRIME UNDER THE GOLDBOD BILL.
RESPONSE: TOTALLY FALSE
No provision in the Goldbod Bill passed by Parliament and awaiting the assent of the President, criminalizes the mere holding, possession and/or storage of Gold.
What constitutes a crime under the Goldbod Bill (Clause 68 (1)) is the HOARDING of gold.
It is worthy of note, that hoarding is not the same as keeping or being in possession of Gold.
Clause 68(1) of the Goldbod bill provides:
“A person shall not, without lawful authority, HOARD gold without a license or authorization issued by the Gold Board”.
Hoard is defined under Clause 74 of the Goldbod Bill as “the accumulation or storage of a gold mining product beyond reasonable business needs, with the purpose of manipulating market conditions or creating artificial scarcity”.
More importantly, Clause 68(2) provides that:
Subsection (1)- which is the offense creation section on hoarding, “DOES NOT APPLY TO A PERSON IN POSSESSION OF GOLD FOR PERSONAL OR VALUE STORAGE PURPOSES”.
The purpose of Clause 68(1) of the Goldbod Bill, is to prevent situations where licensed agents of the Goldbod, given funds by the Goldbod to buy gold for the Goldbod, will hoard gold for the purpose of causing scarcity or create unfair competition or manipulate prices , among others.
It is therefore false that the Goldbod Bill criminalizes the possession of gold by a person or Chief.
On the contrary, one of the functions of the Goldbod is to promote value addition, particularly, local gold fabrication into coins, tablets, bars and other castings and mints for Ghanaians.
One of the reasons for this function, is to promote gold as a better store of value than the U.S. dollar with the aim of reducing pressure on the Ghana cedi.
Thus, the Goldbod will consciously campaign for Ghanaians to buy gold products such as coins, tablets, tokens etc. for purposes of value storage.
The claim that possessing gold for ancestral, traditional or personal reasons constitutes a crime under the GoldBod Bill is totally false.
CLEARING THE MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT THE GOLDBOD (PART 1)
CLAIM 1: THE GOLDBOD IS A REGULATOR AND A COMMERCIAL PLAYER AT THE SAME TIME. HENCE, THERE WILL BE CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN ITS OPERATIONS.
RESPONSE: FALSE
The Goldbod is not a regulator and a commercial player in the sense or context being canvassed by some.
The Goldbod is simply a monopoly in the trading and export of gold.
The regulating function of the Goldbod relates only to its own licensed agents and not competitors.
The regulatory powers of the Goldbod are intended to ensure compliance with its Act and regulations by licensed service providers who trade for and on behalf of the Goldbod for the realization of the objects of the Goldbod.
For emphasis, the Goldbod will not be regulating competitors but rather, its own licensed agents. Thus, the issue of conflict of interest, does not arise at all.
Ghana’s Parliament Building , where the Gold Board Bill 2025 was recently introduced
By Toma Imirhe
Amid calls for clarity on the structure, purposes and activities of the Gold Board (referred to simply as Goldbod), being established by the President John Dramani Mahama administration, legislative proposals have now been drawn up for consideration by Parliament who will be required to turn them into law. However it is still unclear what the timelines for this process are since the bill has not yet been formally presented to Parliament.
With gold prices having passed US3,000 per ounce last week for the first time, Ghana is looking up to gold industry revenues to make up for the ongoing slump in cocoa revenues and stagnant oil revenues. Indeed, the ongoing surge on gold prices was the primary driver of Ghana’s record high trade surplus of over US$4 billion achieved in 2024.
The draft Act itself is: “To establish the Ghana Gold Board , regulate the purchase, trading and export of gold, promote value addition for the country’s gold resources and provide for related matters”
The Board will be a corporate body operating as a commercial venture, with the objectives to regulate, oversee, monitor and undertake the purchase, trading, assay, refining, export and other related activities, concerning gold and other precious minerals of Ghana.
To this end the Board will, among other things : promote the marketing of the country’s gold resources; institute policies and programmes to enhance local gold production and maximize the national benefit across the entire value chain of the gold resources of Ghana; provide support to small scale miners and mining communities; support environmentally sustainable and responsible mining practices; serve as the national authority with the exclusive power to grade, assay, and value gold produced or brought into Ghana and ensure the most favourable arrangement for their commercialization; serve as the national authority with the exclusive power to purchase, sell and export gold from the mining and marketing industry; set standards on the quality purity and weight of gold sold or exported from Ghana ; determine the pricing of gold on the local market; institute policies to promote vale addition to Ghana’s gold resources; combat gold smuggling; formalize the small scale mining industry; promote supply chain sustainability from environmental, legal and ethical perspectives; and grant operating licenses and maintain a register licensed operators.
Goldbod’s governing body will be a Board of Directors comprising a Chairperson and a CEO, both nominated by the President; one representative each from large scale mining firms, small scale miners and gold service providers; one representative each from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance; and three other persons with specialized knowledge and experience in matters relevant to the to the functions of the Board. Directors will hold office for a maximum of two four year terms.
The Ghana Goldbod will be funded by monies approved by Parliament ( the 2025 budget proposes US$279 million for starts) ; fees payable by gold service providers and licensees; revenues accruable to the Board from its activities; administrative penalties; loans and investments; donations and grants; and any other monies as approved by the Finance Minister.
Central to Goldbod’s activities will be the operation of a Goldbod Fund, which primarily will provide concessional funding for licensed small scale miners, provide them with the right environmentally friendly equipment, train them, facilitate precious minerals processing and refining, and support alternative livelihood programmes for mining communities .
The Fund will be financed from Goldbod’s own resources as approved by its Board of Directors, donations and grants, levies imposed by Parliament on gold mining products and services, and any monies as approved by Parliament.
The Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has clarified that, the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) establishment is to compliment the mandate of Minerals Commission.
The GoldBod, a flagship initiative envisioned by President John Dramani Mahama for economic revitalization, will ensure strong monitoring and compliance measures which will help curtail black-market and smuggling of gold.
To achieve this vision, a Technical Committee, tasked with developing the legal and operational framework, particularly the drafting of a Bill for the establishment of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has been outdoored today in Accra.
“It is important to note that the GoldBod will not assume the regulatory mandate of the Minerals Commission over the small-scale mining sector” Dr Ato Forson clarified at the outdooring of Technical Committee. “Instead, it will complement its role.”
“The key objective of the GoldBod will be to formalize the trading of gold from the small-scale mining sector, promote traceability and pursue London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) certification”, the minister indicated.
The Committee has 21 members drawn from the legal profession mining and gold trading industry.
Read full statement of minister below:
FINANCE MINISTER, DR. CASSIEL ATO FORSON, Ph.D., INAUGURATES TECHNICAL COMMITTEE TO DRAFT A LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GHANA GOLD BOARD (GOLDBOD)
27TH JANUARY, 2025
1. Distinguished members of the press, I warmly welcome you this afternoon to the Ministry of Finance.
2. Today, we gather to inaugurate a Technical Committee tasked with developing the legal and operational framework, particularly the drafting of a Bill for the establishment of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod).
3. The GoldBod is a flagship initiative envisioned by His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama for economic revitalization.
4. It seeks to serve as a vehicle for achieving currency stability through the structured purchasing and management of Ghana’s gold resources.
5. As Africa’s leading gold producer, Ghana derives substantial foreign exchange earnings from gold. However, the benefits accrued from this valuable mineral remain minimal, often coming at a steep environmental cost.
6. Historically, Ghana’s revenues from gold have been confined to traditional sources such as royalties and taxes.
7. The Ghanaian economy has not realized the full benefit of our gold resources.
8. The time has come for Ghana to expand beyond royalties and taxes by harnessing the entire value chain of gold.
9. As a nation, we must aspire to maximize the full benefits of our gold resources.
10. This involves optimizing every stage of the value chain—from extraction to refining, value addition and marketing, both locally and internationally.
11. The Ghana Gold Board will serve as a specialized agency for effective marketing of our gold resources.
12. This will involve the implementation of a deliberate program to formalize gold trading from the small scale mining industry and promote traceability with the aim of enhancing the international acceptability of gold fromGhana.
13. Currently, the chaos in Ghana’s gold purchasing sector prevents the nation from fully benefiting from its goldresources.
14. Presently, the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) has the mandate to purchase and sell gold. However, this mandate is not exclusive.
15. The Bank of Ghana also purchases gold through PMMC and other private aggregators under initiatives such as “gold for forex,” “gold for reserves”, gold for oil,” and “gold for cash” among others.
16. Additionally, the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), despite its primary mandate to optimize mineral investment, has ventured into gold buying, incurring substantial financial losses.
17. Also, numerous individual Ghanaians and foreigners with export licenses and/or gold buying licenses are active in the gold purchases and export market.
18. This fragmented, uncoordinated and unregulated system has led to widespread gold smuggling and deprived the state of much-needed foreign exchange.
19. To address these issues, the Ghana Gold Board will be mandated to regulate and streamline the sector.
20. It will act as the sole buyer of gold from the legal small-scale mining sector through licensed aggregators and local traders.
21. Upon its establishment, the GoldBod will also have exclusive legal rights as the sole assayer, seller, and exporter of gold purchased from small-scale miners.
22. The enabling legislation will clearly outline these mandates and amend relevant sections of the Minerals Commission’s export regulations and other ancillary legislations.
23. This will ensure 100% repatriation of forex from the export of gold from the small-scale mining industry to support our national currency.
24. The GoldBod will ensure strong monitoring and compliance measures which will help curtail black-market and smuggling of gold.
25. It is important to note that the GoldBod will not assume the regulatory mandate of the Minerals Commission over the small-scale mining sector.
26. Instead, it will complement its role.
27. The key objective of the GoldBod will be to formalize the trading of gold from the small-scale mining sector, promote traceability and pursue London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) certification.
28. The Government of Ghana will provide a revolving fund enough to PURCHASE ALL GOLD from the small-scale mining sector.
29. In 2024 alone, Ghana exported nearly $5 billion in gold from legal small-scale mining.
30. However, research indicates that the value of gold smuggled out of Ghana from small-scale mining is nearly double the official figure.
31. This highlights the significant foreign exchange losses.
32. Streamlining the small-scale mining sector, curbing smuggling, and directing gold purchases through formal channels will help Ghana improve its foreign exchange accumulation and help stabilize the Cedi.
33. The establishment of the Ghana Gold Board is a critical tool for economic revitalization and currency stability.
34. The GoldBod remains a top priority for His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama.
35. I urge the committee to work diligently and efficiently to fast-track the realization of this noble objective.
36. I also entreat all industry players and stakeholders to give this initiative their maximum support.
37. Ladies and gentlemen, the members of the Technical Committee tasked with drafting the Bill and developing the operational framework for the GoldBod include experts from relevant institutions.
38. Their diverse expertise will ensure the development of a comprehensive and robust legal and operational framework for the GoldBod.
