Faith Nyasuguta
Ghana, Africa’s leading gold producer, is reportedly losing over $11 billion due to large-scale gold smuggling, much of it ending up in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a bombshell report by Swissaid, a Swiss nonprofit. The report has raised fresh concerns about how deeply illegal mining and porous trade routes are draining the country’s economy.
Over a five-year period, the report found a staggering 229-metric-ton gap between Ghana’s official gold export records and the corresponding import data, with the bulk of the discrepancy linked to shipments received in Dubai. This translates to a loss of $11.4 billion in potential revenue, a figure that dwarfs many of the country’s development budgets.
Despite being celebrated as the top gold exporter on the continent, Ghana’s success is being undercut by widespread illegal mining, known locally as galamsey, and an entrenched system of gold smuggling. The issue is particularly prevalent in the artisanal mining sector, which is loosely regulated and often exploited by traffickers.
Swissaid’s findings reveal that most of Ghana’s smuggled gold follows shadowy routes through neighbouring countries like Togo, Burkina Faso, and Mali, taking advantage of weak border controls. From there, the gold is typically shipped to the UAE, where regulatory loopholes have historically made it easy to launder undocumented bullion.
In 2019, Ghana introduced a 3% withholding tax on artisanal gold exports to tighten oversight. However, the policy backfired dramatically, pushing many miners into the black market and causing a steep drop in declared exports. By 2022, the government reduced the tax to 1.5%, and in March 2024, it was scrapped entirely. Finance officials later credited this move with helping revive formal artisanal exports.
Still, the smuggling problem remains huge. In 2023 alone, an estimated 34 metric tons of artisanal gold went undeclared- almost equivalent to Ghana’s entire officially recorded artisanal output for that year. This suggests that while policy reforms may have slowed the bleeding, the sector remains vulnerable to exploitation.
The crisis in Ghana mirrors a wider African trend. A 2019 Reuters investigation revealed a $3.9 billion gap between the gold exports reported by 21 African countries and what the UAE said it had imported. Between 2012 and 2022, the UAE is estimated to have received more than 2,569 metric tons of undeclared African gold, valued at over $115.3 billion.
While the UAE has introduced some reforms to curb gold smuggling, Swissaid’s report argues that real progress remains limited. For Ghana, the challenge is urgent: plug the leaks or continue watching billions in natural wealth disappear overseas.
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