Ghana loses US$2 billion per year to galamsey and gold smuggling, the UK government has revealed.

Speaking at a civil society organisation (CSO) meeting with political parties on mining reforms and governance, Mr Chris Aston, team lead for the UK Ghana Gold Programme (UKGGP), said the revenue loss is a big loss to the government of Ghana.

“This is all lost revenue to the government of Ghana,” he said, adding: “At the moment, the sector is vulnerable.”

“It is being exploited by organised crime groups,” said Mr Aston.

He noted that the “threats are growing.”

“The gold smuggling has more than doubled,” he indicated.

“We want to disrupt illegal mining and illicit financial inflows,” he highlighted, underscoring: “Ghana loses more than US$2 billion yearly to gold smuggling.”

At the same event, security analyst Kwesi Aning said: “Ghana has now been characterised as a ‘Galam-state’ – a state that is captured, and linked to a higher force of grand corruption.”

He said: “In a ‘Galam-state’, the practice is normalised and the people are silenced or limited to mere noises on the sidelines.”

Dr Aning added: “The crimes and collusion are so intertwined” to the extent that: “To stop galamsey, we need to look at multiple other institutions that make these crimes possible and where there are embedded individual and group interests.”

The UK-Ghana Gold Programme (UKGGP) collaborates with the Government of Ghana to ensure that artisanal small-scale gold mining is properly regulated and that existing regulations are effectively enforced.

The programme aims to unlock the full potential of artisanal mining to benefit Ghanaians, while also preventing environmental degradation and safeguarding the health and well-being of miners.