The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has called for mining communities to be treated as economic shareholders rather than mere land donors.
Speaking at the National Mining Dialogue in Accra on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, the CEO said there hasn’t been enough transformation in communities where gold is extracted despite mining being done in Ghana for over a century.
“Mining communities must no longer be treated as land donors. They are custodians of the resource hence must be treated as development partners and economic shareholders.”
He said communities continue to face poverty, poor roads, inadequate potable water and youth unemployment despite hosting valuable mineral resources.
“We cannot continue to mine gold from the soil of our communities while poverty, lack of access to potable water, poor roads, youth unemployment and weak local economies remain the daily reality of too many mining communities in our country.”
Sammy Gyamfi called for greater local ownership, refining and value addition, arguing that Ghana must retain more of the wealth generated from its minerals.
“If we want a new story, we must own more, refine more, process more, fabricate more and retain more.”
He said mining would only earn and sustain its social licence when host communities directly benefit from the wealth extracted from their lands.
“Production without ownership is limited. Production without value addition is leakage. Production without community transformation is a broken social contract.”
