Ghana’s new approach to managing its gold trade is drawing attention from across Africa, with governments and public institutions from seven countries visiting the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) over the past year to learn from its experience.
Delegations from Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Sudan and Namibia have engaged GoldBod on issues ranging from gold purchasing and licensing to artisanal mining, certification and mineral revenue management.
The visits point to a growing interest in how Ghana has reorganised its domestic gold trade and strengthened state oversight of the sector.
GoldBod said the engagements are helping countries explore ways to “formalise gold trading and centralise gold market regulation” while seeking to maximise the value generated from their mineral resources and retain more of that value locally.
The interest began in September 2025 when Sierra Leone’s Finance Minister, Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura, visited Ghana to understand how GoldBod could inform efforts to improve mineral revenue management.
Mozambique followed in October with a delegation from its Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, which studied Ghana’s regulatory and certification arrangements for gold and other minerals.
Tanzania’s Minerals Commission sent a 15-member delegation to GoldBod in January 2026 to examine Ghana’s gold-buying system and regulatory framework. Four months later, officials from the Central Bank of Tanzania returned for a separate study tour focused on Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchasing Programme and Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Programme (GANRAP).
The engagements have since widened. Zimbabwe’s BetterBrands Team visited in April to examine the formalisation of the artisanal and small-scale mining sector, while Zambia sent a government delegation in July as it explored how to build a more structured gold trading system around its emerging deposits.
Sudan also visited GoldBod in July to study the model and consider how elements of it could be applied to its natural-resource management system.
Namibia became the latest country to engage GoldBod in September, with officials from its Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy examining the institution’s mandate, licensing system and gold purchasing and sales operations.
The countries have come with different priorities, but GoldBod said the engagements collectively demonstrate growing continental interest in Ghana’s experience.
The institution described the visits as part of a wider conversation around “gold governance, formalisation, regulation, value addition and mineral-resource management” across Africa.
For GoldBod, the steady flow of delegations means its role is extending beyond buying and regulating gold in Ghana. The institution is becoming a place where officials from other mineral-producing countries can examine a working model, ask questions about its implementation and consider what aspects may be relevant to their own economies.
The interest also gives Ghana an avenue to share lessons from its reforms with other African countries facing similar challenges in managing their mineral resources.
With seven countries engaging GoldBod within a year, the institution is beginning to build a reputation as a source of practical knowledge on gold-sector governance at a time when African countries are placing greater emphasis on securing more value from their natural resources.
