00:00Now Ghana's opened its first commercial gold refinery. The country's the
00:03continent's top gold producer and the government has a 20% stake in the
00:08project in Accra. But whilst the country is hoping to earn more from the precious
00:12metal, some of the herbers aren't so sure that the setup of this project is the
00:17best way to go about this. Justice Baidu talks us through.
00:23The refinery was greeted by huge local and international press heralding what
00:29the government say could reduce the amount of raw gold that Ghana currently
00:34exports. Initially it is expected to create 80 to 120 direct jobs and another
00:42500 indirect jobs, boosting domestic tax revenue in the form of corporate taxes
00:50and enabling us to refine to 24 carats, that is 99.99% purity, the
00:59same quality as a good delivery bar LBMA standard. The Royal Ghana gold refinery
01:07has a capacity to process 400 kilograms worth of gold per day sourcing mainly
01:14from artisanal gold miners in the country. The country's central bank says
01:20this would also boost a gold buying scheme that it has introduced to help
01:25protect the value of the local currency, the Sidi. This follows a pattern or is
01:32consistent with a pattern of government projects that are announced as if they
01:38are large-scale national transformation projects but in actual fact when you
01:43look closely they tend to be driven by commercial interest of close associates
01:48of politicians. We call this state enchantment. Number two, the impression
01:55has been created that Ghana never had refineries and all of a sudden through
01:59this project we have a refinery so this is a game-changer for the gold industry
02:03in Ghana and that's not true. Ghana has almost 12 refineries and in fact this is
02:08not even the biggest refinery. Ghana produced over three million ounces of
02:12gold in 2023 alone.
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