The Ghana Gold Board in collaboration with Better Brands Zimbabwe, has commenced engagements aimed at advancing the formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in Ghana, with a strong focus on financing and structural support for miners.
Central to the discussions is the proposed establishment of a dedicated financing center to support artisanal miners, particularly those engaged in hard rock mining by improving access to capital, equipment, and technical services.
In addition to the financial support, machinery such as mills, explosives, generators, fuel among others will be provided to optimize recovery.
The initiative seeks to tackle one of the sector’s most persistent challenges; limited access to formal financing, which has long constrained productivity and kept many operators within the informal space.
Stakeholders involved in the engagement led by the CEO of GoldBod, Sammy Gyamfi, Esq. indicated that the financing center will function as a hub for tailored financial solutions, including credit facilities, equipment and operational support.
By addressing capital gaps, the model is expected to encourage miners to transition into regulated systems while adopting safer and more efficient mining practices.
GoldBod, Ghana’s state-backed gold trading and regulatory institution, has been at the forefront of efforts to enhance traceability, ensure fair pricing, and curb illicit gold trade.
The engagement with Better Brands Zimbabwe reflects a growing trend of leveraging private sector expertise and cross-border partnerships to strengthen Ghana’s ASM value chain.
Better Brands Zimbabwe is expected to contribute technical and market-oriented insights, particularly in gold aggregation and supply chain structuring, to help create reliable and transparent market access for small-scale miners in Ghana.
Ghana’s artisanal and small-scale mining sector remains a significant contributor to national gold output but continues to face challenges related to informality, environmental management, and regulatory compliance, especially within hard rock mining, which requires higher levels of investment and technical capacity.
The proposed financing center, technical and operational support is therefore seen as a critical step toward unlocking productivity, improving compliance, and increasing official gold deliveries through formal channels. It is also expected to support broader national efforts to maximize value from the gold sector while safeguarding livelihoods.
At the meeting, timelines have been set to undertake site selection, mobilization among others for the implementation to begin in few months.
Since establishment, GoldBod has been engaging investors and stakeholders in the mining sector to implement strategic reforms.
In one year, already implemented reforms have yielded results that experts describe as instrumental in supporting Ghana’s gold accumulation initiatives as well as foreign exchange inflows.
Better Brand Zimbabwe is a prominent multi-sector conglomerate operating in Zimbabwe and other African countries especially in the mining sector.
The company is the Zimbabwe government’s single largest gold-buying agent, primarily aggregating gold from artisanal and small-scale miners.
They have experience in providing financial, technical and operational support to small-scale miners so they can maximise production output.
