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Ghana has lost billions to gold smuggling, links to UAE, report says
By Maxwell Akalaare Adombita
Reuters
Monday, June 16, 2025
DAKAR, Senegal -- Ghana is losing billions of dollars in revenue annually to smuggling from its booming artisanal gold mining sector with much of the gold flowing to the United Arab Emirates, according to a report by nonprofit Swissaid.
The report found a staggering 229-metric ton trade gap, equivalent to $11.4 billion, between Ghana's gold exports and corresponding imports over just five years, with most of the smuggled gold ending up in Dubai.
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"This is just the tip of the iceberg," said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation, who analyses insurgency and artisanal mining operations in the region.
"Hand-carried gold does not have to be declared in Dubai. ... Informal gold is mostly brought in on flights," highlighting other opaque ways Africa's gold is smuggled into the UAE.
The Swissaid report said Ghana's gold is largely smuggled to Togo before ending up in Dubai while some bullion passes through Burkina Faso into Mali, using porous borders.
A senior official at Ghana’s regulatory Minerals Commission described Swissaid's findings as "a notorious fact." ...
... For the remainder of the report:
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