Gold tokenisation to help Ghanaians own gold

By ELVIS DARKO, Accra

The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) is preparing to introduce a gold tokenisation programme in 2027 aimed at allowing Ghanaians and other Africans to acquire fractional ownership of Ghana’s gold resources with relatively modest amounts of money.

The initiative, according to GoldBod Chief Executive Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, is intended to broaden participation in the country’s gold economy and ensure that ownership of the nation’s mineral wealth is not restricted to large investors and institutions.

Mr Gyamfi announced the initiative at the National Mining Dialogue in Accra, held on the theme, “Rethinking the Social License to Operate.”

He said the programme would create opportunities for ordinary citizens to participate in gold-backed investments, describing the objective as ensuring that Ghanaians could directly share in the wealth generated from the country’s mineral resources. “The objective is simple: we must all own and share in the mineral wealth of our nation,” he said.

Opening gold ownership to ordinary citizens
The proposed tokenisation programme represents a significant shift in the conversation around Ghana’s gold resources, moving beyond production and exports towards broader ownership and investment.

Gold tokenisation generally involves representing ownership or an economic interest in physical gold through digital units, potentially allowing investors to purchase smaller fractions of an underlying gold asset rather than having to acquire an entire bar or large quantity of bullion.

For Ghana, the proposed programme could create a new avenue through which citizens with limited capital participate in the gold economy.

It also fits into GoldBod’s broader objective of increasing Ghanaian participation across the gold value chain, including trading, refining, jewellery manufacturing, mining services and investment.

Mr Gyamfi said GoldBod was seeking to ensure that Ghanaians moved from being spectators in the gold industry to becoming “active value actors.”

Gold smuggling fight generates $17bn
The GoldBod CEO also highlighted the institution’s efforts to formalise Ghana’s gold trade and combat smuggling.

He said GoldBod had facilitated the export of about 170 tonnes of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) gold through formal channels from 2025 to date, generating more than US$17 billion in foreign exchange for the country.

According to him, the formalisation of gold flows had contributed to foreign exchange market stability, strengthened Ghana’s reserves and supported broader macroeconomic stability.

The intervention, he said, was also intended to ensure that a greater share of the benefits from Ghana’s mineral resources remained within the domestic economy.

GoldBod has also made local gold trading the preserve of Ghanaians, while creating opportunities for Ghanaian refiners, jewellers and young entrepreneurs to participate more actively in the sector.

Local refining takes off
Mr Gyamfi said Ghana was also beginning to change its long-standing dependence on foreign facilities for the processing of its gold.

He disclosed that nearly nine tonnes of gold aggregated by GoldBod had been refined in Ghana this year alone, creating opportunities to retain refining fees, jobs and other economic benefits within the country.

The development forms part of efforts to move Ghana from simply extracting and exporting raw gold towards greater domestic processing and value addition.

The planned Ghana Gold Village, he said, would further support the development of a local jewellery and gold fabrication industry, creating a platform for skills development, enterprise creation, employment and access to international markets for Ghanaian-made gold products.

GoldBod backs geological exploration
GoldBod is also seeking to address one of the major barriers to increased Ghanaian participation in mining—the high cost and risk associated with geological exploration.

Under its Mining Support Programme, the institution is partnering with the Ghana Geological Survey Authority to undertake geological investigations in mineralised areas.

The objective is to reduce investment risks, attract credible investors and expand Ghana’s mining base in a responsible manner.

Geological investigations are currently underway at Funsi in the Upper West Region and Bensere in the Ashanti Region.

Mr Gyamfi said the studies were expected to create a reliable portfolio of investment-grade mineral assets, allowing risks associated with exploration to be reduced and enabling GoldBod to negotiate stronger equity positions in model mines that could subsequently be established.

“These are not ordinary commercial interventions; they are strategic investments to expand production, ownership and socio-economic impact for Ghana,” he said.

National assay laboratory planned
GoldBod is also preparing to tackle concerns over gold purity, under-declaration and weaknesses in the country’s assay system.

Mr Gyamfi said construction of an ultra-modern, ISO-certified National Assay Laboratory would begin by November 2026.

The facility, to be located at the Aviance Cargo Village at the Accra International Airport, is expected to significantly strengthen Ghana’s capacity to independently verify the quality and value of gold before export.

He said the facility would enable GoldBod, in its capacity as the national assayer, to conduct fire assay, regarded as the gold-standard method of determining gold purity, on both ASM and large-scale mining output before export.

Land for the project has already been secured, while architectural drawings and bills of quantities have been completed. A procurement process is underway to select a contractor.

ASM becomes dominant producer
The push to expand local participation comes against the backdrop of the growing importance of artisanal and small-scale mining to Ghana’s gold industry.

Data for 2025 show that Ghana produced about 5.94 million ounces of gold, with ASM contributing approximately 3.11 million ounces, or 52.4 per cent of national output.

For the first time in more than a century of commercial gold mining in Ghana, ASM output exceeded that of the large-scale mining sector.

Mr Gyamfi said the development demonstrated the potential of Ghanaian participation in the gold industry and showed how increased local involvement could contribute to national economic development.

He said the challenge was to ensure that the growing contribution of local miners was accompanied by formalisation, responsible production, environmental protection and greater value retention.

Gold remains economic powerhouse
Ghana’s dependence on gold for foreign exchange earnings also makes the transformation of the industry strategically important.

The country’s 2025 merchandise trade data showed total exports of about US$32 billion, with gold accounting for approximately US$20.2 billion, or 63.1 per cent of total export earnings.

Gold has consequently played a major role in Ghana’s recent trade surpluses, foreign reserve accumulation, currency performance and wider macroeconomic stability.

Mr Gyamfi said the scale of the contribution made it imperative for Ghana to ensure that the economic benefits of gold extended beyond export revenues.

He said the country’s mining sector must ultimately create an environment where young people from mining communities could aspire to become geologists, engineers, jewellers, fabricators, environmental scientists, equipment operators, entrepreneurs and mine owners.

From extraction to ownership
The GoldBod initiatives point to a broader attempt to redefine Ghana’s relationship with its mineral resources—from a country that primarily extracts and exports gold to one that increasingly owns, processes, invests in and creates products from its gold.

The proposed tokenisation programme could become an important part of that transition by allowing smaller investors to participate in gold-backed opportunities.

At the same time, local refining, geological exploration, assay capacity and downstream manufacturing could strengthen the domestic value chain and create more opportunities for Ghanaian businesses and professionals.

For Mr Gyamfi, the ultimate objective is to build a mining industry in which communities do not merely hear about the benefits of mineral extraction but experience them through jobs, businesses, skills, investment opportunities and improved livelihoods.

He said Ghana’s ambition should be to develop prosperous mining towns, strategic industries around its minerals and deeper community trust, ensuring that the country’s gold wealth becomes a foundation for broader and more inclusive economic development.