Acting Executive Vice President and Head of Gold Fields in West Africa, Joshua Mortoti has urged the government to prioritize turning Ghana into a jewellery production hub on the continent.
Ghana overtook South Africa as the continent’s largest gold producer with 4.8 million ounces in 2018 and increased the production to 5.0 million ounces in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the country, exports almost all of this gold in the raw state, compelling local jewellers to import refined gold at higher costs to produce the jewellery.
In an interview with Citi Business News on the need to add value to Ghana’s gold, Mr. Joshua Mortoti said real value addition is not necessarily in gold refining.
“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.”
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