President John Dramani Mahama on Thursday shared Ghana’s experience with the Ghana Gold Board (Goldbod) with the Zambian National Assembly, highlighting its role in strengthening state 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 the First Lady, Lordina Mahama, is on a three-day State Visit to Zambia at the invitation of President Hakainde Hichilema.

Addressing Parliament, President Mahama said Africa must move beyond rhetoric and boldly leverage its natural resource endowments to drive economic transformation.

He stressed the need for African countries to exercise greater sovereignty over their resources to deliver 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 noted that mining and the extractive sector play a critical role in Ghana’s economy, adding that, like Zambia and many African countries, Ghana is richly endowed with minerals such as gold, bauxite and manganese, but had historically added little local value.

“My country is changing that narrative. Ghana established the Gold Board in April last year to take control of and regulate gold exports,” he stated.

He reiterated that the Board has sole authority to export gold from Ghana and said its impact had been significant.

According to the President, gold exports from the artisanal and small-scale mining sector increased from 63 tonnes to 104 tonnes within 10 months of the Board’s establishment.

He said the increase had generated more than 10 billion dollars in foreign exchange earnings over the same period.

“We are taking steps to domesticate the value addition of our minerals,” President Mahama said.

He disclosed that the Board had recently signed an agreement with a local refinery to process about one tonne of gold per week, rather than exporting raw doré gold.

The President added that Ghana also plans to commence local processing of manganese and bauxite instead of exporting raw ore.

He further announced that government has replaced the flat-rate mineral royalty regime with a sliding scale of between five per cent and 12 per cent, depending on prevailing international market prices.