Ghana’s gold regulator orders foreign players to leave market

Ghana’s new gold industry regulator ordered all foreign players to exit the local market by the end of the month as the West African country looks to curb smuggling and streamline gold trading by small-scale miners.

Africa’s largest gold producer is also hoping to increase earnings further on the back of rising gold prices, up more than 23% this year as investors turn to the precious metal amid economic uncertainty driven by a global trade war. Ghana’s gold exports rose more than 53% last year, making the country the world’s sixth-largest gold producer.

The new regulator, GoldBod, was created this year to better control the local gold supply chain. But critics have questioned whether Ghana’s government, which came to office in January, rushed its implementation.

Accra-based analyst Bright Simons, of the Imani Centre for Policy and Education, described GoldBod as an “unwieldy beast” that would struggle to achieve its purported aims of accountability and good governance. “Unless the design issue is addressed, and should the bull market end abruptly, the GoldBod will become a major loss-making pit for public resources,” he told Semafor.