Seven African countries send delegations to study Ghana's GoldBod model

Pinned summary · as of 17:01

Over the past year, officials from seven African countries have travelled to Accra or held talks with the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) to learn from its way of running the gold trade. Several of the visiting teams described the Ghanaian arrangement as a reference point for changes to their own mining sectors.

What we know

• Seven foreign delegations have visited or met GoldBod within a 12-month period. They came from Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Sudan and Namibia.
• The series began on 18 September 2025, when Sierra Leone's Minister of Finance, Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura, called at GoldBod. GoldBod Chief Executive Officer Sammy Gyamfi talked with him about how Sierra Leone might adapt the Ghanaian model to handle its own mineral revenue.
• Mr Bangura praised what GoldBod had achieved in a short time and called its model a possible template for lasting reform of the gold sector across Africa.
• In October 2025, officials from Mozambique's Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, among them Kimberley Process staff, spent two days in Ghana looking at how gold trading and certification are regulated. GoldBod Deputy Chief Executive Officer Richard Nunekpeku walked them through the regulatory framework and daily operations.
• A 15-member team from Tanzania's Minerals Commission, led by Dr Theresia Numbi, came to GoldBod in January 2026 to examine the gold-buying system and the rules around it. The team said Ghana was picked deliberately after a comparison with other countries and called it a pioneer and a centre of excellence in Africa.
• Four months later, a separate group from the Central Bank of Tanzania made its own study tour, centred on the Domestic Gold Purchasing Programme and its successor, GANRAP.
• In April 2026, GoldBod received Zimbabwe's BetterBrands Team for a technical visit on bringing Ghana's artisanal and small-scale miners into the formal sector.
• In July, a senior Zambian government delegation came on a fact-finding mission after a formal request passed through Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Nunekpeku received the group and briefed it on GoldBod's operations, achievements and continuing reforms. ZCCM Investments Holdings later said publicly that it was interested in the Ghanaian model as Zambia looks to earn more from its small-scale gold.
• On 21 July 2026, Sudan's Ambassador to Ghana led a delegation from his country to GoldBod, seeking to grasp how the body works and to weigh whether Sudan could replicate it in managing its natural resources.
• Namibia's Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy visited in September 2026 as a benchmarking exercise and looked at GoldBod's legal mandate, licensing regime and its gold purchasing and sales work. Legal Department and Technical Operations staff made presentations, and Mr Nunekpeku received the group. The Namibians called the model a robust framework from which their country could draw useful lessons.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  Kumasi Mail reported that, around the time of the Sierra Leone visit, GoldBod had a separate project with the Ghana Commodity Exchange covering tokenisation and exchange-traded funds, and that the Securities and Exchange Commission was consulted about safeguarding investors. No other report has confirmed this.
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  Rainbow Radio Online said the visiting teams wanted to see how Ghana brings informal small-scale and artisanal miners under a regulated arrangement where their output can be traced, without sidelining local operators. No other report has confirmed this.

Why it matters for Ghana

GoldBod was set up to channel small-scale gold through a licensed and traceable system, and interest from other governments shows that Ghana's approach is being watched across the continent. For Ghanaian miners, buyers and regulators, this adds weight to the question of how well the system works at home. Countries that adopt similar arrangements could also become competitors or partners in the regional gold trade.