Parliament has passed the Ghana Gold Board Bill 2025, creating the Gold Board to regulate the gold industry, promote transparency and traceability, and boost foreign exchange earnings.
The Gold Board will oversee the purchase, sale, and export of gold, helping to stabilize the cedi through revenue generation.
Despite objections from the Minority, who argued the bill could promote illegal mining activities (‘galamsey’), the bill was approved by a majority vote.
Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga praised the bill, calling it “landmark legislation” and expressing pride in the historic achievement.
The Minority staged a walkout after the First Deputy Speaker, Bernard Ahiafor, rejected their request to reconvene at 10 am on March 29 to discuss the bill, following the passage of the 2025 Appropriation Bill.
Addressing journalists, the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, questioned the government’s commitment to combating illegal mining, citing the allocation of 4.6 billion Ghana Cedis to the policy as a major concern.
“We’re all aware of the challenges we face as a nation, specifically on galamsey. Our friends who are in government made some promises. Today, they are now the Apostles who are promoting galamsey. They are using their numbers to now establish what has become known as Galamsey Board. The government, instead of investing in agric, women’s banking, 24-hour economy policy, it used for the 2204 elections. It’s rather giving GHC4.6 billion to galamsey operators.
Afenyo-Markin added, “If you say bring an enactment and say your focus is on small-scale mining, all of us in this country know that small-scale mining is galamsey. Is this government really ready to fight galamsey?
“How do you say you’re establishing a new entity that is going to monopolise the purchase of gold from small-scale miners, and now you are going to regulate galamsey and you’re going to give them money?”
