Kwadwo Bonsafo Barwuah
Government must adopt the MineTrace initiative in a bid to enhance transparency and revenue in Ghana’s gold industry especially in the small-scale mining sector, Founder of MineTrace, Kwadjo Bonsafo Barwuah, has said.
MineTrace is a cloud based system that allows all the stakeholders within the gold industry access to view all traceability process, thereby enhancing transparency in the entire value chain.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 2024 Gold Statement Conference and Exhibition in Accra, Mr. Barwuah said the roll out of the initiative is strategic.
“The reason why we are bringing this initiative is because there is a lot of fragmentation in the gold industry, so we want to bring all the stakeholders together in a single system where everyone can transact with each other.
“The reason why we want government’s adoption is to also help deepen transparency in terms of payment of tax by the various stakeholders.
“MineTrace will also ensure all the various stakeholders meet the required international standard before the gold reaches the international market. There might be systems in place but I think what we bring is the traceability in terms of all the stakeholders for transparency,” he said.
This year’s two-day Gold Statement Conference and Exhibition was on the theme “Promoting Ghana Gold Jewellery with Special Emphasis on Lapidary and Gemstones of Ghana – A New Dimension.”
It brought together players from the gold value chain and the jewellery sector to deliberate on promoting Ghana’s jewellery.
Ghana mined 4.03 million ounces of gold in 2023, driven largely by increased output from small-scale and artisanal miners.
By Samuel Boadi