The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) Bill recently passed into law by Parliament promotes value addition by urging the public to resort to gold as a store of value instead of the U.S. dollar.
This, according to the Acting Managing Director of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), Sammy Gyamfi, will subdue the pressure on the Ghana cedi.
He has asked that the public opts for local fabrication of gold into coins, tablets and others where they can be kept for a longer period to increase the value.
Gyamfi made the revelation in a post on his X Sunday, March 30, 2025, where he sought to clarify an assertion that the possession of gold by individuals, including chiefs, was a crime.
His comment was on the back of claims by some people that one needs to acquire a license before holding or keeping gold, jewelry, or other gold products.
He sought to clarify the speculation that failing to obtain a license to keep or hold any of the minerals is allegedly a crime under the GoldBod bill.
In his post, he described the claims fueling that assertion as “totally false”.
“No provision in the Goldbod Bill passed by Parliament and awaiting the assent of the President, criminalizes the mere holding, possession and/or storage of Gold,” he stated.
He clarified, however, that it is the hoarding of gold that constitutes a crime, as contained in Clause 68(1) of the GoldBod Bill. Gyamfi explained that hoarding is distinct from possession, as defined in the Bill.
According to him, the purpose of the provision is to avoid the deliberate stockpiling of gold by dealers to create artificial scarcity to manipulate the market price.
“The purpose of Clause 68(1) of the Goldbod Bill, is to prevent situations where licensed agents of the Goldbod, given funds by the Goldbod to buy gold for the Goldbod, will hoard gold for the purpose of causing scarcity or create unfair competition or manipulate prices, among others.
“It is therefore false that the Goldbod Bill criminalizes the possession of gold by a person or Chief,” he clarified.
He explained further that, on the contrary, the Bill actually promotes storing value in gold to mitigate the constant depreciation of the Ghana cedi against the US dollar.
“On the contrary, one of the functions of the Goldbod is to promote value addition, particularly, local gold fabrication into coins, tablets, bars and other castings and mints for Ghanaians.
“One of the reasons for this function, is to promote gold as a better store of value than the U.S. dollar with the aim of reducing pressure on the Ghana cedi.
“Thus, the Goldbod will consciously campaign for Ghanaians to buy gold products such as coins, tablets, tokens etc. for purposes of value storage,” he disclosed, reemphasising that “the claim that possessing gold for ancestral, traditional or personal reasons constitutes a crime under the GoldBod Bill is totally false.”
His comments come after the passage of the Ghana Gold Board Bill 2025 into law on Friday, March 28, 2025. The newly established Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has been tasked with overseeing, monitoring, and managing the buying, selling, and export of gold and other precious minerals.
Under this law, GoldBod has been designated as the sole exporter of gold from Ghana’s small-scale mining sector, effectively barring licensed traders and bullion dealers from making direct gold exports.
The establishment of GoldBod is part of President John Dramani Mahama’s economic revitalization efforts and operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance.
