Ghana lost an estimated $11 billion to gold smuggling under NPP Gov’t from 2019-2024 – Mahmud Kabore
A spokesperson for the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr. Mahmud Kabore, has alleged that during the period between 2019 and 2024, Ghana lost as much as US$11 billion to the illicit smuggling and export of gold, prior to the establishment of GoldBod.
Speaking on Kessben TV, Kabore insisted that the absence of a strict, centralized regulatory mechanism in that era allowed widespread leakage of Ghana’s gold wealth through unregulated channels.
Kabore framed the figure not as speculative, but as a conservative estimate based on discrepancies between official export figures and import data from international markets, discrepancies highlighted in recent studies of Ghana’s gold trade.
With the establishment of GoldBod, now the sole legal buyer, assayer, and exporter of gold from licensed ASM producers in Ghana, the government claims to have introduced a new era of transparency, traceability and accountability in the gold sector.
Kabore argued that this institutional reform is essential to plugging the losses that reportedly accumulated under the previous regime.
Observers and civil-society advocates have in recent months pointed to external research estimating that Ghana lost roughly US $11.4 billion between 2019 and 2023 to gold smuggling, similar to the claim Kabore reiterated.
The establishment of GoldBod is now widely seen by government officials as a critical step in recovering lost revenue and ensuring that future gold extraction benefits the country.
