A delegation from Namibia’s Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy has visited the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) on a benchmarking and consultation mission to gain insights into Ghana’s gold trading and regulatory framework.
The delegation was received by GoldBod’s Deputy CEO, Richard Nunekpeku, who led discussions on the institution’s mandate and operational framework.
The engagement covered key areas including licensing and regulation, gold purchasing and sales, responsible mining and sustainability, financial management, foreign exchange generation, and compliance and enforcement.
The Namibian team described the GoldBod model as a robust framework from which valuable lessons could be drawn as Namibia works towards greater standardisation and efficiency within its mining sector.
The visit also provided a platform for knowledge exchange and stronger institutional cooperation between Ghana and Namibia.
The interest in the GoldBod model comes as its economic impact becomes clearer. Between January 2025 and May 2026, GoldBod purchased 135.843 metric tonnes of gold valued at about US$16.11 billion, almost entirely from the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector.
According to a technical report by University of Ghana economists, recorded ASM exports rose from 63.6 tonnes in 2024 to 103.0 tonnes in 2025, with the additional 39.4 tonnes representing gold previously lost to smuggling but now captured in the formal system. Valued conservatively, that formalisation brought an extra US$3.8 billion in foreign exchange into the economy.
The report put the benefit-cost ratio at about 18 to 1 when compared to the Bank of Ghana’s reported trading loss of US$214 million. GoldBod-enabled ASM exports in 2025 alone amounted to US$10.8 billion in non-debt foreign exchange inflows.
In Parliament, Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Nyarko Ampem said the inflows helped increase Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves from US$8.98 billion in December 2024 to US$13.8 billion in 2025 and contributed to the cedi’s appreciation by about 41 per cent in 2025.
