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Straits Times
08-07-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Ghana launches task force to curb gold smuggling losses
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox ACCRA - Ghana President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday launched a task force backed by security forces to address illegal gold trading, as Africa's top producer seeks to recover billions of dollars lost to smuggling. The task force is Ghana's first national anti-gold smuggling initiative. The government has previously launched efforts to sanitize artisanal mining but these were unsuccessful in curbing illegal extraction and preventing revenue losses that plague most African gold producers. Ghana this year created the new gold board known as GoldBod to centralise gold trading. This has led to record official exports of 55.7 metric tonnes of gold valued at $5 billion in the first five months of 2025, Mahama said at the inauguration of the new task force. "This is money that would not have come back to Ghana because traders would have taken it and kept the foreign exchange outside," Mahama said. To encourage public cooperation with the new anti-smuggling task force, which will involve both soldiers and police officers, informants will receive 10% of the value of gold seized as a result of their tips, Mahama said. Ghana plans to implement a nationwide gold traceability system and transition to refined gold exports by 2026, Mahama added. The country will also seek to capture more value from gold through an assay laboratory, certified by the International Organization for Standardization to guarantee quality, and a specialized manufacturing hub. West African governments are striving to capture more revenue from surging commodity prices. Military-led nations are adopting aggressive policies, including rewriting mining codes, seizing assets and renegotiating contracts, while democracies like Ghana and Ivory Coast are pursuing measured reforms through higher royalties and enhanced revenue-sharing deals. Gold prices have jumped 25% this year to date, and peaked at $3,500 per ounce in April, according to Reuters data. REUTERS
New Indian Express
03-07-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
India, Ghana elevate ties to comprehensive partnership after first prime ministerial visit in 30 years
ACCRA: India and Ghana have elevated their ties to the level of comprehensive partnership, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama resolving to expand the bilateral ties in a range of areas, including defence, food security and pharmaceuticals. In his media statement shortly after the talks with Mahama on Wednesday, Prime Minister Modi said both sides have set a target of doubling the two-way trade in the next five years and that India is not just a partner but a co-traveller in Ghana's development journey. The delegation-level meeting between the two leaders took place hours after Modi arrived in this capital city of the West African country on the first leg of his five-nation tour. In a special gesture, the prime minister was received at the airport by President Mahama and was accorded a ceremonial welcome. It is the first prime ministerial visit from India to Ghana in three decades. In their talks, the two leaders resolved to accelerate cooperation in key areas such as defence cooperation, food security and pharmaceuticals, especially vaccines. Following the Modi-Mahama talks, the two sides inked four pacts that will provide for cooperation in several areas, including culture and traditional medicine. "Today, the president and I have decided to elevate our bilateral partnership to a comprehensive partnership," Modi said, adding, "India is not just a partner but a co-traveller in Ghana's journey of nation-building." "In agriculture, it will be our pleasure to lend support towards President Mahama's 'Feed Ghana' programme," Modi said. "We've discussed cooperation in vaccine production," he noted.
Business Recorder
23-05-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Ghana central bank keeps rate unchanged as inflation eases
ACCRA: Ghana's central bank on Friday kept its main interest rate unchanged at 28.00%, saying consumer inflation was expected to ease further this year. Governor Johnson Asiama said at the opening of the monetary policy committee meeting on Wednesday that while the inflation outlook was improving, it remained vulnerable to food supply constraints and external price shocks. Consumer price inflation slowed for a fourth month in a row in April, to 21.2% year on year from 22.4% in March. It remains well above the Bank of Ghana's targets of 8% with a margin of error of 2 percentage points. The gold, oil, and cocoa-producing West African nation is recovering from its most severe economic crisis in decades, facing challenges in its critical cocoa and gold industries.
Zawya
24-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Ghana: Atlantic Lithium seeks concessions to salvage Ghana project
ACCRA: Australia-based miner Atlantic Lithium said it has appealed to Ghana's government for fiscal concessions to salvage its Ewoyaa project, as plummeting global prices threaten the viability of what would be the West African nation's first lithium mine. "We have done the maths and it doesn't make sense at all," Ahmed-Salim Adam, Atlantic Lithium's general manager, told Reuters. "We have written to the minister of lands and natural resources for urgent help on the fiscals. If not, the project cannot proceed," he added. Prices of the critical battery metal have tumbled more than 80% from peaks seen in November 2022, as a supply glut coincided with slower-than-expected electric vehicle adoption rates globally. Ghana, Africa's lead gold producer, granted the Australian miner a 15-year lease to establish the mine by late 2024, hoping to capitalize on the EV boom. The Ewoyaa project, with an estimated resource of 35-40 million tonnes of lithium-bearing ore, is positioned to become one of the top 10 global spodumene concentrate producers, according to Atlantic Lithium, making it a significant new supply source outside the industry-dominant markets of Australia, Chile and China. It is estimated to produce around 360,000 tons of lithium annually, which will be exported to the U.S. However, construction of the project stalled on delayed parliamentary ratification, with the lithium price collapse now further complicating its viability and the company's development timeline. Despite a recent price recovery, driven by normalizing global auto production, industry analysts remain cautious. While "EV-led demand growth remains strong, it continues to be overwhelmed by mine supply growth," said Tom Price, Panmure Liberum's head of commodities, noting that U.S. President Donald Trump's 25% tariff further dampened prospects. West Africa's relatively recent entry to lithium also means investors will prefer to stay in established markets when prices are weak, Price said. In its appeal to Ghanaian authorities, Atlantic Lithium said the project's internal rate of return has plunged from an initial 105% to just 13.6%. "Nobody is going to put their money in that. It should have been 30% to make sense," Adam explained. Government officials from Ghana's mining sector regulator and relevant ministries did not respond to requests for comment. CONCESSIONS SOUGHT The company is seeking several fiscal adjustments, including reducing royalty rates from 10% to 5% - matching Ghana's gold mining sector - or implementing a sliding scale tied to lithium prices. It also proposed revisions to the 32.5% corporate income tax rate and removal of import duties on capital equipment. Atlantic Lithium said it has spent $70 million since 2016 but was now facing "significant challenges" that risk stalling the project. The situation has forced the miner to dramatically scale back operations, dismissing 25 employees in October with plans to lay off approximately 50 more in May. "We will maintain only a skeletal team," Adam said. He said while parliamentary ratification remains critical, construction cannot begin without addressing the fiscal framework. "Even if we get ratification done, we can't get it off the ground." Adam concluded.
Zawya
15-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Ghana orders foreigners to exit gold market by April 30
ACCRA: Ghana has ordered foreigners to exit its gold trading market by the end of the month, a new government body said on Monday, as the West African country looks to streamline gold purchases from small-scale miners, increase earnings and reduce smuggling. Africa's leading gold producer is shifting away from a system in which local and foreign companies with export licenses can buy and export gold from artisanal or small-scale mining. Under the new system, the newly created gold board known as GoldBod is the only entity allowed to buy, sell, assay and export artisanal gold, Monday's statement said, and older licenses have ceased to be valid. Foreigners must leave the local gold trading market by April 30 although they can apply "to buy or take-off gold directly from the GoldBod," the statement said. Finance minister Cassiel Ato Forson said in January that the creation of GoldBod would allow Ghana to benefit more from gold sales while maintaining the national currency's stability. Ghana's gold exports grew by 53.2% in 2024 to $11.64 billion, of which nearly $5 billion was from legal small-scale miners. Gold prices vaulted on Friday over the $3,200-per ounce mark for the first time. The trade war between the United States and China has rattled global markets and driven investors into gold, which is traditionally viewed as a hedge against geopolitical and economic uncertainty. (Reporting by Christian Akorlie; Writing by Anait Miridzhanian; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Tomasz Janowski)
