The surge in gold exports strengthened Ghana’s macroeconomic position, with the cedi ranking as the second-best performing currency globally in 2025. With the ASGM sector accounting for a majority share of Ghana’s total export revenue and employing over one million people, the industry’s contribution to economic stability continues and Ghana’s position as Africa’s largest gold producer continues to expand.

Driving the growth of the ASGM sector are a series of state-backed reforms, international partnerships and targeted local-content programs aimed at empowering miners. Ghana, in partnership with the UN Development Program, is implementing the planetGOLD Ghana initiative. The program supports ASGM players through capacity building, financial literacy training, access to financing and the promotion of responsible and mercury-free mining practices. With inadequate funding disrupting ASGM sector growth, the program links miners with government and private-sector financing mechanisms and offtake opportunities.

Ghana also launched the Responsible Cooperative Mining and Skills Development Program in August 2024. The initiative consolidates small-scale mining operations into structured cooperatives, strengthening their collective financial and technical capacity for project development. The program enables shared infrastructure, including communal processing facilities, to overcome infrastructure constraints limiting productivity within the ASGM sector.

At the policy level, a multi-year, multi-phase six-pillar strategy led by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources is supporting sector growth. The strategy focuses on modernizing the licensing regime to ensure that ASGM operators can obtain permits more quickly and affordably. The launch of the Ghana GoldBod – the country’s official domestic gold buyer – in May 2025, strengthened ASGM market formalization and access to financing and the formal gold trading market. As a result, ASGM gold trading exceeded $5 billion within the first five months of 2025, matching the value traded during the entire previous year.

Amidst rising gold prices – which reached record highs in 2025 – and an ongoing national agenda to empower ASGM players and create employment, Ghana’s ASGM sector is well positioned to enter a new phase of growth.