Blockchain will power the operation of the new Ghana Gold Board

Abdoul Hassan
Accra, Ghana
April 18, 2025

T he new government of Ghana announced the creation of a Ghana Gold Board (GOLDBOD) in an election manifesto back in 2024. On March 29th, 2025, the new parliament of Ghana passed the Ghana Gold Board Bill in a move that aims to reform the gold industry. The new body will oversee the upstream and downstream activities of the gold sub-sector, while promoting a transparent management of commercial operations. Gold is vital for the economy of Ghana it generated US$11.6 billion dollars in Q4 2024 but the industry also lost US$2 billion because of illicit and informal mining and also smuggling. The goal is to use gold resources to boost the national economy and to strengthen the national currency. Before the announcement, the authorities had stressed that blockchain will power the Gold Board operations. How will it work?

Functions of the Gold Board

The government expects the new institution to have key functions, including regulatory prerogatives, for example, through the granting of licensing and the monitoring of compliance. It will have a commercial function as a government gold trader. Finally, the Gold Board will undertake financing operation through borrowing on the domestic and even international markets. Another novelty is that the Gold Board will take part in the fight against gold smuggling. Gold resources are important for Ghana and the government expects the new institution to contribute to the stabilization of the national currency the Cedi and increase revenue from gold exports.

Ghana is Africa’s leading gold producer and generates substantial foreign exchange earnings from gold. However, according to Minister of Finance, Cassel A. Forson, ‟the benefits accrued from this valuable mineral remain minimal, often coming at a steep environmental cost”¹. Before the establishment of the Gold Board, a host of public institutions have been active in the gold business.

In this crowded institutional ecosystem, the Minerals Commission (MC) carried out licensing activities, while the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) conducted assessing and testing gold. Official gold purchases and export were the prerogatives of the Bank of Ghana. Besides the Central Bank, the ministry of lands and natural resources (MLNR) ensures a sustainable, efficient management of the mineral resources to foster socio-economic growth and development. This ministry is also home to the Minerals Income and Investment Fund (MIIF), which is a sovereign wealth fund. The mandate of the Fund is to manage the equity interests of the State in mining companies. It also receives dividends from these equity interests, mineral royalties and other related income. However, these operations duplicated each other’s activities, especially when confronting illicit and informal gold mining. Minister Forson describes this galaxy of institution as ‟a fragmented system involving multiple entities”². With the Gold Board, the authorities want to ‟bring coherence to the sector”³.

Transparency and traceability

Blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger that document transactions and the tracks assets in a business network in real-time. It combines different technologies to provide a trusted, tamper-resistant record of transactions from multiple parties without a need for a central authority. This technology is useful but also has limits or challenges in other contexts. Despite apprehensions about security, every tangible or intangible asset is tradable on a blockchain.

In Ghana, informal and illicit practices permeate the gold business and bolster the case for the use of blockchain. Information on price, suppliers, buyers, formal and informal contractual arrangements and also traceability of are complex to trace. In this context and because of its tamper resistance, blockchain offers solutions in situations where market participants or stakeholders lack trust in each other.

Embracing blockchain

Gold has a long and complex value chain. Historically, thie metal has traded in bulk and kept safe in vault in places like London (UK), New York (USA) and Zurich (Switzerland). The upstream segment concentrates on prospection and actual mining while the downstream refines, develops and trade products for industries and personal items such as jewelries, gold bars, and coins. For decades, the industry thrived without an effective way for the public to invest in gold. However, changes began with Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs), which offered access to small transactions. But Ghana did not benefit from these developments because of the relative immaturity of the domestic commodities market. The Ghana Commodity Exchange (GCX) for example, does not trade Ghana’s gold.

In addition, the industry has weaknesses throughout its value chain. In Ghana, portions of gold activities operate in the informal sector, where trades take place between non-registered agents or digress into smuggling. Ghana exports raw gold with little added value because of a lack of domestic processing capabilities. The opportunity to buy and sell gold on a blockchain network is an innovation that will circumvent entrenched dysfunctional business practices.

The adoption of blockchain is a signal that Ghana is adapting to growing international trends. The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) started highlighting the potential of blockchain in gold trading in 2015. In a seminal series of research papers, the LBMA predicted that participants in gold blockchain trading will store the value of their gold asset in their mobile devices. It explained at the time that participants will then be able retrieve it with the individual copy of their security keys. Alternatively, the LBMA announced, the participants will use smart contracts to conclude trades without intermediaries, with two or more parties⁵.

The LMBA and the World Gold Council (WGC) have been promoting blockchain as part of their the ‟Gold Bar Integrity Program”. A joint press statement during the program launch on March 28th, 2022, emphasized building trust in gold sourcing. The statement also says that ‟This blockchain-backed ledger will register and track bars, capturing the provenance and full transaction history”⁵. The LBMA and the WGC are two industry associations whose members come from the world’s largest mines, traders, and refiners. Central banks and commodities exchanges around the world have also embraced blockchain.

Critical success factors

Blockchain depends on the internet and through it, offers a borderless means of value storage and transfer without a need for a central counterparty. But the internet requires reliable electricity to power the computers and communications devices that contribute to the network. Electricity and internet access have to be affordable to reduce the cost of blockchain.

Blockchain technology is an advanced database mechanism. This means that the output from the technology will only be as good as the data that feeds the system. Ghana piloted blockchain technology gold traceability in 2022 through the Minexx’s blockchain technology platform. Minexx worked with Solidaridad, a leading global organization based in Utrecht (the Netherlands) that promotes governance in mining. Gold trader HA Exploits Ltd. used the platform to export 11.62 g of gold, coming from the Obeng Mine (Ghana) to the international market. Minexx is a UK company based in London. This company uses blockchain and artificial intelligence to track mineral sourcing, in compliance with legal and ethical standards.

Scaling up the Minexx-Solidaridad pilot project will mean convincing stakeholders to join the platform. These stakeholders include 35 mining companies that operate in Ghana, 11 public institutions [6] active in this industry and thousands of informal miners and unregistered traders strewn around the country. These participants will also need capacity building.

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