UK-Ghana partnership strengthens efforts to combat gold smuggling, illicit finance
By Isaac AIDOO, Accra
The United Kingdom (UK) and Ghana are deepening their strategic partnership to address shared challenges, particularly in the fight against serious organized crime, including gold smuggling and illicit finance.
The collaboration is a key component of the broader bilateral relationship between the two nations, focusing on mutual interests and security across West and North Africa.
As part of this effort, Chris Aston, Team Leader of the UK-Ghana Gold Programme (UKGGP), emphasized the high priority both countries place on tackling illicit financial activities, gold-based money laundering, and vulnerabilities in Ghana’s artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector.
“Gold smuggling and money laundering are significant threats to the region. Together, we are working to address the exploitation of vulnerable sectors, including the gold mining industry,” Aston noted during an interview.
The UKGGP has been engaging with Ghana’s major political parties ahead of the December elections to discuss their manifesto commitments on artisanal mining. This follows a previous event in June, held in partnership with the Natural Resource Governance Institute, where key recommendations were presented to strengthen Ghana’s mining regulations.
Aston affirmed the UKGGP’s readiness to continue supporting Ghana’s efforts in improving governance in the mining sector. “We are committed to working with the incoming government, whoever it may be, to implement policies that ensure artisanal mining benefits the people and the state,” he said.
The partnership underscores the long-standing relationship between the UK and Ghana, aimed at enhancing governance, security, and development within the gold trade.
ASM gold mining has great potential to benefit local communities and the government but at the moment unregulated ASGM costs Ghanaian government 2 billion USD a year in lost tax revenues, devastates the environment, causes health issues for mining communities and could fund foreign nationals, criminal gangs and extremist groups.
A recent research paper by SwissAid estimates that in 2022, more gold was smuggled from Ghana (nearly 60 tonnes) than any other African country, apart from Mali
Gold smuggling in Africa more than doubled between 2012 and 2022.
The Ghanaian government loses out on the tax revenues from all of the smuggled gold.
At the moment, the sector is vulnerable to exploitation and it threatens Ghana’s economic prosperity and security, and the threat is growing.
“We are working with so the Ghanaian Government to change this, and help ensure that ASGM benefits the Ghanaian government and Ghanaian people,” Aston stated. The objectives of the post-manifesto-launch dialogue were to get feedback from the parties on the manifesto commitments they’ve made relating to gold mining and discuss them, discuss how UKGGP could support the implementation of the ASGM related commitments increase awareness of the SOC dimensions of illegal and unregulated mining, and the threat to national and regional security.
