Sammy Gyamfi, CEO of the Ghana Gold Board, Sammy Gyamfi has exposed how illegal enterprises are disguising themselves as black market foreign exchange operators, and buying gold illegally, bypassing legal protocols and undermining Ghana’s financial system.
Mr. Gyamfi made this assertion during a press briefing on Tuesday, September 16, 2025 in Accra.
‘’So far, what we have reviewed is that they are involved in all manner of businesses, and one of the businesses they are involved in is an illegal foreign exchange (FX) business. All these Alhajis all over the place, the black market foreign exchange businesses in this country, they have key stakeholders in that,’’ he said.
Sammy Gyamfi revealed that Abdul Karim, Mohammed Afsal Putalan, Sadiq Abubakar, and Mr. Nandoli have developed clever tactics to avoid detection. Their operations are carefully planned, making it difficult for law enforcement to trace their movements or link them directly to the illegal gold and foreign exchange network.
‘’They have various people they do that with, and these guys take cedis from people who need dollars, and they (that Abdul Karim, Mohammed Afsal Putalan, Sadiq Abubakar, and Mr. Nandoli)provide dollars to their accomplices who are involved in this illegal foreign exchange trade and settle their customers through momo and some through what is called in Ghana today as ‘hawala’.
‘’The reason why they do this gold business and where they get the money from is that when they buy gold illegally then they smuggle the gold, they leave the dollars in Dubai, so when you need the dollars in Ghana, they tell you they have dollars in Dubai and you can get somebody in Dubai to pick the dollars there whiles they take your cedis here,’’ he added.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has intensified its crackdown by placing a GH¢1 million bounty on each of the four suspects currently on the run.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Mirabel Serwaa Asante
