Fighting Galamsey While Funding It

Illegal gold mining, known in Ghana as galamsey, has left behind poisoned rivers, destroyed farmlands, and communities stripped of their livelihoods. Every government has stood before the people to declare war on galamsey, yet the practice continues to spread. The reason is not hard to see. While leaders condemn galamsey with their words, their policies quietly give it room to breathe. What should be a fight has instead become an enabler.

When the government announced the creation of the Ghana Gold Board to replace the Precious Minerals Marketing Company, it was presented as a reform to regulate gold trading and curb smuggling. Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson explained that the Board was expected to increase national earnings, projecting that “small-scale gold mining could generate up to twelve billion dollars per year” (\[GoldBod.gov.gh, Jan 2025]). The Gold Board itself announced that it aimed to buy “over three tons of gold every week” to boost reserves and strengthen the cedi (\[GoldBod.gov.gh, Jan 2025]). The question that immediately arises is simple: if legal small-scale mining cannot produce that amount, where will the rest come from? Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin raised this exact concern, warning that the Gold Board “is in effect a galamsey board” and that such unrealistic targets will only open the door for illegal gold to be laundered into official channels (\[The Ghana Report, Feb 2025]). Mining consultant Wisdom Edem Gomashie was even more direct, saying the plan risked becoming “a form of state sponsored galamsey” unless sourcing was made transparent (\[Ghana News Online, Feb 2025]).

The government has pushed back against these criticisms. Gold Board CEO Sammy Gyamfi insisted in January 2025 that “GoldBod is not using galamsey gold in its operations” and explained that the Board buys only from licensed aggregators (\[MyJoyOnline, Jan 2025]). Yet in the same breath he admitted that traceability is not yet airtight, promising that by the end of 2025 the government would roll out satellite monitoring, RFID tags, and blockchain to track gold sources (\[NewsGhana, Jan 2025]). Until those systems are operational, the risk remains obvious. As long as there is a hungry buyer, gold from illegal pits and polluted rivers can find its way into the state’s coffers. When the very institutions that are supposed to fight galamsey become the biggest buyers of gold, the line between legal and illegal becomes dangerously blurred.

Let us take a pause and analyse the contradictions of the NDC government that is rather sustaining the destruction of our natural resources such as our land and water bodies, vis-à-vis what they said while in opposition. Before coming to power the NDC, through John Dramani Mahama, repeatedly condemned galamsey. During the 2024 campaign Mahama said “fighting galamsey will be tough, requires sacrifices.” He warned that “many young people who currently rely on galamsey for their livelihood would face unemployment” if the fight is serious, and that production might decline, saying “we must be prepared for a reduction in production, which will inevitably lead to a decrease in exports.” (\[MyJoyOnline, Sept 2024]) He also accused the previous administration of failing to protect forests and rivers, stating that “illegal mining has no place in Mahama’s administration.” (\[CitiNewsroom, Feb 2025]) Several times he insisted that the incoming government would conduct audits of all mining concessions. These statements in opposition painted a picture of strict regulation, environmental protection, and no tolerance for muddy gold. Now those promises clash with policies that appear to accept gold supply even when its source is murky, targeting large gold purchase volumes, creating centralized buying through GoldBod, while traceability remains incomplete.

At the same time, government has made no secret about the motive. Revenue from gold, they argue, is critical for development. Deputy Finance Minister Abena Osei Asare explained earlier this year that “gold purchases are central to our strategy to strengthen foreign exchange reserves” (\[Reuters, Jan 2025]). To meet this goal, nine large-scale mining companies have already been compelled to sell twenty percent of their output to the Gold Board (\[GoldBod.gov.gh, Jan 2025]). The entire framework is designed to pull in as much gold as possible, yet when policies place revenue and foreign exchange above environmental safety and community well-being, the message is clear: gold first, people later. This is why many ordinary Ghanaians see the fight against galamsey as half-hearted.

It is contradictory to say we are fighting galamsey while creating an official channel that can absorb its products. A man who says he hates stealing does not buy stolen goods. In the same way, a government that claims to hate galamsey cannot continue to purchase gold of doubtful origin and expect the menace to stop. So long as there is a buyer, there will be a supplier. By building policy around the gold trade without airtight verification, the government is sustaining the very activity it condemns.

The tragedy is that the price of this double standard is paid by ordinary citizens. Farmers lose their lands. Children drink from poisoned streams. Communities are left without clean water. The economy may record figures in dollars, but the human cost is never factored. Ghana cannot develop on the back of destruction. To keep buying galamsey gold while declaring a fight against it is not leadership, it is hypocrisy dressed as policy.

If the government truly wants to stop galamsey, it must cut off the market that sustains it. That means no purchases without strict proof of legal sourcing, no more lofty revenue targets that only illegal supply can fill, and no excuses that development depends on poisoned gold. Until then, the claim of fighting galamsey will remain a hollow slogan.

Stop Galamsey Now.
By Victor Raul Puobabangna Plance from Eggu in the Upper West Region of Ghana

#Puobabangna

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