Ghana has reportedly lost over $11 billion in gold revenue due to widespread smuggling activities, with much of the illicit gold traced to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a new report by Swissaid, a nonprofit research group.
The report uncovered a staggering trade gap of 229 metric tons between Ghana’s recorded gold exports and the UAE’s import data over a five-year period. This discrepancy translates to approximately $11.4 billion in lost revenue, with most of the smuggled gold flowing into Dubai through informal and undeclared routes.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel programme at Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation. He emphasized that informal gold shipments often bypass customs checks, with gold hand-carried into Dubai on flights without declaration.
Swissaid’s findings reveal that gold from Ghana is often smuggled through Togo, Burkina Faso, and Mali before reaching the UAE. A senior official from Ghana’s Minerals Commission described the revelations as “a notorious fact,” underscoring how deeply entrenched the problem is.
The report also highlighted how Ghana’s 2019 decision to impose a 3% withholding tax on artisanal gold exports inadvertently worsened the situation. Declared exports plummeted, while smuggling surged. Though the government reduced the tax to 1.5% in 2022, which led to a slight recovery, it wasn’t until the tax was fully scrapped in March 2024 that formal gold exports began to rebound significantly.
Still, in 2023, an estimated 34 tons of gold went undeclared—roughly the same as the nation’s total reported artisanal gold production for the year.
Despite earning $11.6 billion in gold export revenue in 2023, Ghana’s fight against illegal gold trading continues. The government has introduced reforms to centralize and sanitize the sector, but experts argue more robust and faster action is needed.
Bright Simons of Imani Center for Policy and Education noted, “While the new government has shown some willingness to fix longstanding issues in the gold sector, progress has been slow.”
Across Africa, this pattern is familiar: exporting countries report far less gold than what is received by buyers, particularly in the UAE. Dubai’s efforts to clamp down on informal gold imports have had limited impact, as weak regulatory frameworks persist across both ends of the trade.
The gold mining sector, especially the artisanal subsector, provides employment for millions in sub-Saharan Africa, but it is increasingly being exploited to fund organized crime and conflict.