Sammy Gyamfi, CEO of the Ghana Gold Board, has defended the state’s expanding grip on gold trading, insisting the move is necessary to protect Ghana’s economic interests and stop long-standing losses in the sector.

Speaking on PM Express Business Edition with George Wiafe, he rejected concerns that the Gold Board is acting both as a regulator and a market player, arguing that the real issue was never just weak regulation.

“What President Mahama sought to cure is not a lack of regulation problem. Yes, there was a lack of regulation coordination and all that.

"But also, we are very clear in our minds that we want the state to lead gold trading in Ghana, and we want our people to assume the commanding heights of gold trade in Ghana,” he said.

According to him, the previous system left Ghanaian players at a disadvantage, with foreign dominance across both mining and trading.

“Before the Gold Board, individuals were engaged in the trade, so you could have established good budgets to be a regulator and allowed individuals to continue to trade.

"But these individuals were predominantly foreigners. The Ghanaians could not compete with the foreigners because the foreigners had a bigger financial muscle,” he noted.

He stressed that the imbalance stretched across the entire value chain.

“So we are living in our country, the mining of the gold, the mining sector is dominated by foreigners. When it comes to the large-scale sector, the trading sector is also dominated by foreigners,” he added.

Sammy Gyamfi said data gathered by authorities exposed deep inefficiencies and losses under the old system.

“You understand, and we saw that we had data to show that when individuals were leading this trade, not only were we suffering a lot of significant leakages through smuggling, under declaration, hoarding and all that,” he said.

He maintained that the state’s decision to centralise gold trading is aimed at closing those loopholes and ensuring full value retention.

“We want to take total control over the trading of our gold, and we are able to ensure that within a maximum period of T+3 plus 100% of FX comes back,” he stated.

Sammy Gyamfi revealed that the system has already moved beyond delayed payments to stricter enforcement.

“Now we are not even doing T+3. We are doing spot once we say we have good for you before, if the flight takes off. Once it takes off, you must pay us, and our logistics service providers must confirm with us that we have received 100% of the payment,” he explained.

He said the policy marks a shift from partial to full payment guarantees. “It used to be 95%, now we made it 100% before we release the gold to you,” he added.

According to him, the new model is already improving dollar inflows into the economy.

“So now every week, maximum two weeks, dollars are coming into the system. Traders who need dollars are served through their banks, because the Bank of Ghana is meeting the demand for them by the banks, and the bank is also able to accumulate reserves to support the economy,” he said.