Sammy Gyamfi says a direct directive from President John Mahama is driving a major shift in Ghana’s gold sector, with a strong push to end decades of exporting raw gold.

Speaking on PM Express Business Edition, the Gold Board CEO said Ghana’s long-standing failure to refine its gold locally has limited the country’s ability to maximise value.

“Ghana, since we started mining gold, even when we were the Gold Coast till 2024, we have always exported gold in this raw form.

"We’ve had a few refineries in the country, but they haven't received the necessary support from the government to refine a significant portion of the gold we produce before we export. So value addition has been a challenge for many years,” he said.

He revealed that the situation is now changing under direct instruction from the President.

“But when President Mahama was appointing me, it was one of the matching orders he gave as part of his reset agenda for the sector,” Sammy Gyamfi disclosed.

According to him, the directive is clear: move Ghana away from exporting raw gold to producing refined bullion.

“He wanted to see an end and a move away from a dore, what we call raw gold, to bullion or refined gold, so that we can optimise benefits from the entire value chain,” he said.

Sammy Gyamfi noted that the Gold Board has taken the directive seriously and has already begun implementing changes.

“that is why we as Gold Board, has taken up that task, the President gave us very seriously. And so we are changing that narrative as we speak,” he stated.

He said the shift is already underway, beginning with local refining initiatives.

“We have commenced local value conditions, starting with local refining in Ghana,” he added.

As part of the plan, the Gold Board has entered into a refining agreement with Gold Coast Refinery to process gold locally before export.

“Not too long ago, we announced the signing of the first-of-its-kind refining agreement with Gold Coast Refinery, and that agreement provides for Gold Board to allocate to the Gold Coast refinery gold up to one kilogram of gold every week, of course, depending on their operational capacity to refine that gold into bullion before,” he explained.

He disclosed that initial trials have already begun.

“We’ve done the first trial with 200 kg. There were some teething challenges; we took a step back to resolve them, and we are resuming,” he said.

Despite early setbacks, Sammy Gyamfi said the target remains ambitious.

“We are determined to push harder and harder until we attain that one metric ton of refined gold on a weekly basis,” he noted.

He added that government officials have already visited the refinery to support the process.

“So that local refining has already started, the Finance Ministry, together with myself and our board, went to the refinery on the first day that they commenced the local refinery,” he said.

Sammy Gyamfi stressed that the policy shift will gradually reduce raw gold exports while increasing refined output.

“So once this agreement takes off fully, we will be reducing gradually the quantity of raw gold that we export, and will rather be increasing the quantity of refined gold,” he explained.

He insisted that the transformation is already in motion, not just a policy proposal.

“The process has already started. This is not a promise. This is not something we are going to do. This is something we are doing.”