• Ghana mining body disputes claim firms repatriate only 20% revenues

• Chamber says true repatriation 70.8%, including commercial bank flows

• Debate reflects wider African scrutiny over mining export revenue tracking

Ghana's Chamber of Mines has disputed a statistic on foreign exchange repatriation by large mining companies, reigniting a broader debate over how export proceeds are tracked in Africa's mining economies.

In a statement released last weekend, the industry body challenged a claim by the chief executive of the Ghana Gold Board that major mining companies repatriate no more than 20% of their export revenues. Sammy Gyamfi of GoldBoD made the remark at a ceremony marking the first sale of gold from the Damang mine — recently transferred to a local company — to the Bank of Ghana.

For countries where the mining sector accounts for a major share of foreign currency earnings, export revenue repatriation mechanisms are central to exchange rate stability and a central bank's ability to build reserves.

The Chamber of Mines contests the basis of that calculation, arguing it only covers transactions with the central bank and excludes commercial bank channels, which handle dollar-denominated royalty payments, energy bills, salaries and payments to local suppliers. When both channels are included, the industry body puts the repatriation rate at 70.8% for 2024, equivalent to $4.9 billion out of $7.1 billion in revenue generated by its members.

A debate beyond Ghana's borders

The Ghanaian dispute mirrors a broader regional debate. In Zambia, a joint IMF and Bank of Zambia mission estimated in 2023 that between 50% and 90% of copper export revenues had not been repatriated in 2020 and 2021. Lusaka subsequently launched a digitized export revenue tracking framework in January 2024, tightening rules requiring exporters to repatriate proceeds into Zambia-domiciled bank accounts within 90 days.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, following a Cabinet meeting on April 24, 2026, ordered an audit of the entire mining revenue chain after tightening sanctions against mining operators failing to meet their foreign exchange obligations. An analysis by AKILI Consulting cited by Bankable indicates the central bank raised fines for failing to declare foreign accounts by more than 1,000% in 2025.

In Ghana, the Chamber of Mines is calling on the central bank to settle the dispute by publishing a disaggregated breakdown of foreign exchange flows from the mining sector covering all channels. Until such clarification is provided, the question cannot be definitively resolved based on currently available data.

Emiliano Tossou