Gold dealers in the country have expressed grave concern about the taking over of their business by some foreigners whom they accuse of money laundering.
Autel Solomon, Ashanti Regional Acting President of Gold Buyers Association of Ghana (GBAG), said members of the association had become apprehensive of possible job losses as well as revenue loss to the state, and therefore want government to stop foreign nationals from the gold buying trade.
“Many of these foreigners are without proper documentations, yet they are trading. They buy from illegitimate sources and fail to pay the needed tax to the state. This can’t happen in their country of origin,” he noted.
According to Solomon, some Indians, who pretend to be investors, have flooded the gold buying market. He alleged that they have been using it as a cover-up for their money laundering business.
“Some of them have fictitious documentations purporting to be coming from the Minerals Commission, which identify them as miners. They are not mining but buying our gold cheaply and paying virtually nothing to the state, to the disadvantage of Ghanaians,” he disclosed.
He said the association wanted government to begin investigation into the gold buying activities and possibly flush the foreigners out of the retail business, “which is preserved for Ghanaians by law.”
Solomon believes the operations of these foreigners had had adverse effect on the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) Limited and the national economy in general.
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