President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, officially launched the Ghana Gold Board Taskforce as part of renewed efforts to curb gold smuggling and clamp down on illegalities within the country’s gold trade.
The launch marks a major step in operationalising the Gold Board Act (Act 1140), aimed at strengthening regulation and protecting Ghana’s mineral wealth.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, President Mahama described the occasion as a turning point in Ghana’s natural resource governance.
“It is a significant event, both the passage of the Gold Board Act and today’s inauguration of the Gold Board Task Force. Ghana has been blessed bountifully with much natural resources. And today’s inauguration of the Gold Board Task Force signals our readiness to act decisively,” he stated.
He disclosed that the taskforce has undergone intensive training and screening to ensure professionalism and integrity in its operations.
“The task force comprises personnel from national security, the military, and other security agencies. They’ve undergone rigorous vetting, training, polygraph testing, and orientation on Act 1140. They’ve also completed intensive team-building exercises and anti-corruption training,” the President explained.
To ensure accountability, President Mahama announced that all taskforce members would operate under strict oversight and be required to wear body cameras during operations.
“Let me be clear: abuse of your authority will not be tolerated, and any officer found engaging in misconduct will face immediate sanctions. And these could include dismissal, prosecution, and forfeiture of your entitlements,” he warned.
The Gold Board Taskforce is being deployed in the wake of sweeping reforms under Act 1140, which annulled all gold trading licenses previously issued by the now-defunct Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
These reforms are part of broader efforts to sanitize the small-scale mining sector, enhance transparency, and plug revenue leakages in the gold export trade.
