Nana Akwasi Awuah condemns mob disruption at National Assay Centre

The Managing Director of the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), Nana Akwasi Awuah, has condemned Tuesday’s (17 December) disruption at the National Assay Centre, located at the Aviance Cargo Terminal of Kotoka International Airport in Accra.

A mob, allegedly led by Joseph Yammin, the National Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), stormed the facility in a bid to seize bullion bars being processed by the PMMC for the Bank of Ghana (BoG). 

Speaking on the Asaase Breakfast Show (ABS) on Thursday (19 December), Awuah expressed his dismay over the incident and provided insights into the company’s collaboration with the BoG to boost Ghana’s gold reserves.

Awuah outlined the origins of the BoG’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP), which began in June 2021 under the government’s directive.

This initiative aims to increase Ghana’s gold reserves, which, until recently, amounted to just 8.7 tonnes despite over a century of gold mining.

“This is a country which has been mining gold for over 100 years, and yet the only gold reserves we could boast of was 8.7 tonnes,” Awuah explained. 

“Whereas the leading country in this world with the highest gold reserves is the USA, with over 8,133 tonnes of gold in its reserves. In Africa, the leading country is Algeria, with 173 tonnes of gold in its reverse.”

According to Awuah, the programme has been a significant success. “As a result of this programme, the central bank has been able to grow Ghana’s gold reserves from 8.7 tonnes to 28.1 tonnes and as we speak, Ghana is now number five in Africa when it comes to our gold reserves and then number 60 in the world.”

The PMMC Managing Director provided a detailed account of the disruption on Tuesday. 

“We were carrying out a similar process for the central bank when a mob attacked the assay lab. When they came, what they said was that they were being led by a gentleman who identified himself as Mr. Joseph Yammin, as the NDC national organiser.” 

“They came with a story that there is an allegation or they’ve received intelligence that there is someone smuggling gold and that specifically these are political actors within government, smuggling gold through PMMC.”

Despite explanations that the gold in question belonged to the BoG, the mob insisted on inspecting the bullion. 

“After about several hours of a standoff, it was agreed that fine, we’ll give them the opportunity to inspect one box to confirm that indeed it is gold. So they did that inspection.”

“Meanwhile, we had called reinforcement from the police. So in all of this, the police were present,” he added.

Awuah dismissed allegations of smuggling as baseless, stressing the robust and transparent systems at PMMC. 

“It is strange for anybody to think that if anybody wanted to smuggle gold, they would come through PMMC and the reason is simple: there is too much transparency when it comes to good exports being handled by PMMC to the extent that there’s no way anybody who has such malicious intention of smuggling gold will come through PMMC.”

“There you have several other state actors like GRA, Customs, you have NACOB, you have National Security, [and] you also have Aviation Security there.”

“All of them observe and monitor the process so that we don’t put anything on or there’s no suspicion of contraband goods being added to the bullion box for export.”

He also highlighted the role of the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS), which ensures a paper trail for all transactions.

“Once it passes through ICUMS, you definitely cannot delete that. So all of that shows that there’s a paper trail; there’s documentary evidence of the processes that were being carried on.”

“So for them to come and make that allegation to disrupt those operations, it was very, very, very disappointing.”

Despite the disruption, Awuah revealed that a compromise was reached to secure the gold. 

“It was agreed that the police would escort the PMMC bullion vans together with the boxes containing the gold to the Greater Accra Regional Police Command, where it was kept overnight.”

A consensus was reached to return the gold to the BoG’s vaults, with seals from both the PMMC and the NDC transition team applied to the bullion boxes for added security.

“They recorded the seal numbers so that if anybody trampers with it, they would know,” Awuah concluded.

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