By: Mohamed Salim Rotea

ACCRA, Ghana Sierra Leone’s Finance Minister, Sheku Fantamadi Bangura, has opened a new chapter in regional mining collaboration with a strategic visit to Ghana’s GoldBod headquarters. The meeting, held on Thursday, September 18, 2025, with GoldBod CEO Sammy Gyamfi, focused on how Sierra Leone could adapt Ghana’s gold management framework to curb smuggling, boost transparency, and increase government revenues.

Bangura praised Ghana’s “innovative steps to formalize and strengthen its gold sector,” describing the GoldBod model as a potential game-changer for Sierra Leone’s economy. “We’re interested in adopting mechanisms that ensure our minerals are properly accounted for, licensed, assayed, and exported at fair value,” he said.

GoldBod, established earlier this year under the GoldBod Act, is a state-backed institution with the authority to buy, assay, and export gold from licensed artisanal and small-scale miners. Its mandate includes reducing illegal gold flows, improving traceability, and increasing foreign exchange earnings, goals that align closely with Sierra Leone’s reform agenda.

Sammy Gyamfi welcomed the prospect of collaboration, offering to share technical expertise and institutional best practices. “Formalizing the gold trade through licensing, traceability, and responsible sourcing strengthens government oversight and builds investor confidence,” he said.

For Sierra Leone, adopting elements of the GoldBod model could deliver significant gains. Centralized buying and better traceability would not only raise state revenue but also reinforce anti-money-laundering (AML) controls an urgent priority for Bangura’s ministry, which currently chairs a regional AML body.

However, the model comes with trade-offs. Experts caution that centralization must be balanced with competitive market dynamics and protections for small-scale miners. Ghana itself has grappled with these tensions, offering Sierra Leone valuable lessons in designing inclusive reforms.

Both parties agreed to pursue technical exchanges and explore a formal memorandum of understanding (MoU) to define the scope of cooperation. Whether this leads to stronger oversight and better livelihoods for Sierra Leone’s mining communities will depend on transparent policy design, stakeholder engagement, and safeguards that protect the interests of artisanal miners.

As Sierra Leone looks to modernize its mining sector, Ghana’s GoldBod may offer more than a model, it could be a blueprint for transformation.