The Deputy Minister for Finance, Thomas Nyarko Ampem, has chaired the signing of a major inter-agency agreement aimed at tightening anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing safeguards within Ghana’s gold industry.

The high-level signing ceremony, held at the Ministry of Finance, brought together heads of key regulatory, intelligence and law enforcement institutions.

The agreement formalises a coordinated national response to financial crime risks in the gold sector, particularly within artisanal and small-scale mining, at a time when Ghana is undergoing a crucial mutual evaluation by the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).

Opening the event, Mr Ampem described the agreement as a decisive shift from policy design to firm institutional responsibility.

“This marks a conscious transition from technical engagement to senior-level affirmation, consolidation and ownership of agreed reforms,” he said, noting that the presence of agency heads underscored a shared resolve to confront money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing risks in the gold sector.

The pact builds on the Gold Sector AML/CFT/PF Joint Action Plan, the product of more than a year of technical collaboration. It commits all signatory bodies—including the Bank of Ghana, the Financial Intelligence Centre, the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), the Minerals Commission and the Office of the Registrar of Companies—to sustained action across three key pillars: legal and regulatory reforms, law enforcement and financial intelligence, and due diligence and beneficial ownership transparency.

Mr Ampem stressed that the agreement was deliberately crafted to endure beyond the ongoing GIABA assessment.

“We are jointly affirming that these reforms are nationally owned, institutionally embedded and designed to last well beyond the Mutual Evaluation,” he told senior officials and development partners present.

He highlighted several milestones already achieved, including the creation of a dedicated AML/CFT/PF Desk at GoldBod, the enforcement of the Registrar of Companies’ beneficial ownership sanctions regime—which has penalised non-compliant gold firms—and the rollout of API integration to enable real-time data sharing between the Registrar of Companies and GoldBod.

“This communiqué offers clear evidence of inter-ministerial coordination and senior-level commitment, which are central to international assessments of effectiveness,” Mr Ampem said, adding that the framework would also strengthen revenue mobilisation, boost investor confidence and support sound economic governance.

The Deputy Minister reaffirmed the Ministry of Finance’s leadership role in the process, explaining that the Mining and Industry Unit of the Real Sector Division has been tasked with providing structured oversight to ensure continuity and impact.

He also acknowledged the support of the UK-Ghana Gold Programme for facilitating inter-agency collaboration, expressing confidence that the agreement sends “a strong and credible signal of Ghana’s resolve” to protect the integrity of its gold sector.