Sierra Leone Eyes Ghana’s GoldBod Model
By: Mohamed Salim Rotea
Sierra Leone’s Finance Minister, Sheku Fantamadi Bangura, has paid a courtesy visit to the CEO of Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, in Accra on Thursday September 18, 2025 to examine how Ghana’s gold management regime could be adapted in Sierra Leone to reduce smuggling, improve transparency, and enhance revenues. The meeting was part of an exploratory effort to learn from GoldBod’s recent successes.
During the meeting, Bangura commended Ghana for what he called “innovative steps to formalize and strengthen its gold sector,” stating that these strategies could “play a key role in boosting Sierra Leone’s economy.” He further expressed interest in adopting aspects of the GoldBod model to ensure minerals produced in Sierra Leone are properly accounted for, licensed, assayed, and that exports generate fair value for the government.
Sammy Gyamfi responded by welcoming the prospect of collaboration where he reiterated that GoldBod is willing to share technical expertise, institutional experience, and best practices with Sierra Leone. Gyamfi also emphasized that formalizing the gold trade through licensing, assaying, traceability, and ensuring responsible sourcing helps both government oversight and investor confidence.
Ghana’s GoldBod, established in 2025 under the GoldBod Act, is a state institution with authority to buy, assay, and export gold from licensed artisanal and small-scale miners. Its mandate includes reducing illegal flows of gold, increasing foreign exchange earnings, and improving traceability of gold trade. Sierra Leone is seeking reforms in its mining sector and revenue systems, and the Ghana model offers a concrete blueprint.
If Sierra Leone adopts elements of Ghana’s approach, the implications are material: better traceability and centralized buying can raise state revenue and strengthen anti-money-laundering (AML) controls a priority for a finance ministry that now chairs a regional AML body and is pressing for greater revenue mobilization. But the model also carries trade-offs: centralization must be balanced with competitive markets, safeguards against abuse of monopoly power, and measures to protect small miners’ livelihoods lessons already debated in Ghana.
In a closure, both parties have agreed to do follow up with technical exchanges and possibly a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to define the specific mechanisms of cooperation. Whether this translates into more revenue and better livelihoods for Sierra Leone’s mining communities will depend on transparent design, multi-stakeholder consultations, and safeguards to protect small miners while strengthening national oversight.
