Stakeholders Push for Gold Value Addition and Integration into Financial Systems to Counter Global Economic Shocks

Stakeholders in the African finance and extractive sectors have issued a strong collective call for a radical shift in how the continent manages its mineral wealth, urging governments and investors to prioritize gold value addition and its deeper integration into domestic financial systems. The demand was the central theme at the Gold Roadshow Africa held today, Friday, November 14, 2025.

The conference addressed the paradox of Africa being home to vast gold reserves yet capturing minimal financial returns from the global gold trade.

In his keynote address, Mudassir Amray, Executive Director of Tropical General Investments Group, emphasized the strategic importance of gold in the current geopolitical climate, describing it as an “inflation firewall” and a neutral, instantly liquid asset capable of shielding African economies from global financial volatility.

“For years, gold was seen as a metal of beauty. Today, it stands as a model of strategy,” Amray asserted. He highlighted that despite Africa producing over 40% of the world’s gold, the continent secures less than two per cent of the final financial value because it exports the metal in raw form, thus exporting its wealth.

Path to Financial Sovereignty

The consensus among participants, including prominent financiers like Bolaji Balogun (Founder, Chapel Hill Denham) and officials from institutions like the African Development Bank, was that the focus must shift from merely mining to downstream industrialization. This includes:

1. Domestic Refining: Investing in local gold refineries to process the raw output into a higher-value commodity.

2. Market Integration: Creating gold-backed financial instruments (like Gold-Backed Exchange Traded Funds) to deepen capital markets and provide local investment alternatives.

3. Strategic Reserves: Following the model of countries like Ghana, which have successfully used domestic gold procurement to significantly bolster Central Bank gold reserves and strengthen local currency stability.

The stakeholders committed to working with national governments to create coherent policies, supportive infrastructure, and incentives necessary to attract long-term investments for local processing. They concluded that capturing this lost value is not just an economic opportunity but a path toward achieving genuine “financial sovereignty for Africa.”