Ghana may lose $100 million from gold exports by the end of April 2023, if the Bank of Ghana is unable to provide guarantee funding to the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) to acquire gold from the licensed small scale miners.

This is coming after the ‘Gold for Oil’ policy was introduced in January 2023.

About 2000 kilogrammes of gold are produced every month by artisanal and small scale miners valued at approximately $120 million. But PMMC which used to buy an average of 2,000 kilogrammes of gold every month has not been able to purchase gold since the beginning of this month.

Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Bullion Traders, Dan Krampah, confirmed this to Joy Business and said “we will lose about $100m because the official channel through which gold will be sold that is PMMC is not on the market now. And instead of establishing offices in almost all the regions in which small scale miners operate…they have office only in Kumasi and Tarkwa”,

“It will be difficult for miners to travel long distances with gold to come and sell in Kumasi”, he explained.

The licensed gold exporters are unable to export the mineral because they have been barred from buying and exporting the commodity.

Mr. Krampah expressed sadness that members of the Chamber of Bullion Traders are unable to buy and export gold, a situation which has forced them to lay off some employees.

“The government assured us that the PMMC will be given funds by the Bank of Ghana to pre-finance the purchase of gold which was at 2.0 tons per month. So, we were expecting that this quantity and that amount will be readily available for licensed gold exporters to buy gold for export".

“But the exporters have been prevented from buying because the policy is that now no licensed gold exporter should export gold. So that is what is happening now”, he added.