DAKAR, Senegal — Billons of dollars in gold is smuggled out of Africa each year and most of it ends up in the United Arab Emirates, where it is fine-tuned and offered to consumers around the world, according to a report released Thursday.
Over $30 billion worth of gold, or more than 435 metric heaps, was smuggled out of the continent in 2022, according to the report released by Swissaid, an help and advancement group based in Switzerland. The primary locations for African gold were the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Switzerland.
The authors of the report stated their objective was to make the trade in African gold more transparent and put pressure on market gamers to do more to make gold products traceable and supply chains more accountable.
“We hope that this will enhance the living conditions of regional populations and the working conditions of artisanal miners throughout Africa,” Yvan Schulz, one of the report’s authors, informed The Associated Press.
The report discovered that inbetween 32% and 41% of gold produced in Africa was not stated. In 2022, Ghana was the biggest gold manufacturer in Africa, followed by Mali and South Africa, it stated.
The UAE was by far the primary location for smuggled gold, the report stated, with some 405 metric lots of undeclared output from Africa ending up there. During a 10-year duration inbetween 2012-2022, that quantity summed up to 2,569 metric heaps of gold, worth around $115 billion. The report stated the space inbetween UAE imports and exports from African nations