The CEO of the Ghana Gold Board, Sammy Gyamfi, says Ghana’s gold sector holds the key to a bold economic reset, driven by a vision to reclaim control and maximise national benefit.

Speaking on Joy News' PM Express Business Edition with host George Wiafe, he described his appointment as both unexpected and deeply personal.

“For me, it was an exciting call made by the president. The president, to some of us as a father figure, is not just a flagbearer.

"He’s not just our President, but somebody that I’ve enjoyed the father-son relationship with for some time now, and he’s a great visionary,” he said.

He admitted the role was not one many predicted for him.

“What he may see in you, you may not even have seen in yourself. Maybe many never expected that, upon winning power, I would find myself where I am. I’m sure many have predicted that I may, I may have landed some communication-related job based on what I was doing, for the party in opposition,” he noted.

Gyamfi credited the President’s foresight for placing him at the centre of a critical sector.

“But the president, I think, saw something in me that many had not noticed at the time, and he decided to give me this opportunity, supported by my able minister, who is like a brother to me as well, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, we have been able to push the agenda of the president for the gold sector,” he added.

At the heart of that agenda, he stressed, is gold.

“Gold is very essential to the reset agenda of the President, because he believes that Ghana could have maximised national benefits and exerted its sovereignty over its good resources more than we have done since independence,” Gyamfi said.

He explained that the renewed focus goes beyond extraction to include trading and value retention.

“And so when he was given the second opportunity to govern as president, he needed a certain urgency for his agenda of transformation, for not only the exploitation, but also the market and the trading of our good resources to ensure that we reset the sector and change,” he stated.

Sammy Gyamfi pointed to longstanding structural challenges the new strategy seeks to fix.

“The narrative of leakages, the narrative of low repatriation of FX and ensure that Ghanaians are in control, not only of the exploitation of our mineral resources, but also of the trading of same and that the process from that trade is coming back into the economy to support the economy and to propel his agenda, his transformation agenda for the country,” he said.

Despite acknowledging that others were equally qualified, he described his appointment as a privilege.

“So that was why I believe he saw me worthy, and there are many people in the NDC who are qualified for the job. So for me to have been given the opportunity was a rare privilege for which I am forever grateful to the president,” he said.

Sammy Gyamfi pledged to justify the trust placed in him.

“And every day when I wake up, my prayer is to work hard to justify the confidence he reposed in me and not to let him down. And I believe that is a prayer of my colleagues who have also been given the very privilege to serve in his government.”