INVESTORS AND MEDIA In the news
Ghana's gold is a key export commodity
Ghana overtakes South Africa as largest producer of gold
Ghana increases gold production to 5.0 million ounces in 2020
Government has been admonished to prioritize efforts aimed at making Ghana into a jewellery production hub in Africa.
This is the call made by Joshua Mortoti who is the Acting Executive Vice President and Head of Gold Fields in West Africa.
Mortoti in an interview with Citi Business News said the move is necessary to add value to Ghana's natural resource production.
'Jewelry production is where real value addition happens, that's where you employ a lot of people. So if you ask me as a Ghanaian I would say our focus should be on turning Ghana into a real jewellery production hub, to create the real value addition that we want and not necessarily focus only on refining as value addition,' he explained.
In 2018, Ghana's gold output overtook that of South Africa making it the largest producer of gold with 4.8 million ounces.
Two years down the line, Ghana in 2020 increased its gold production to 5.0 million ounces even in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
Although Ghana is notable for exporting its gold in raw form, local jewellers have since been compelled to import refined gold at huge costs for them to produce jewellery products.
Meanwhile, Ghana has accrued US$7.4 billion from the production of gold between 2016 and 2018.