Zambia is stepping up efforts to bring its largely informal small-scale gold sector into the official economy as striking international trade discrepancies raise fresh questions over how much value is escaping formal export channels.
ZCCM Investments Holdings Plc Chief Executive Kakenenwa Muyangwa told Bloomberg that formalising Zambia’s artisanal and small-scale gold industry could unlock more than $1.8bn, as the state investment company looks to Ghana’s model for bringing informal production into regulated purchasing and export systems.
International trade data illustrate the scale of the opportunity. World Integrated Trade Solution figures show that the United Arab Emirates recorded imports of about 29.1 tonnes of non-monetary unwrought gold from Zambia in 2023, valued at approximately $1.788bn.
Hong Kong separately reported imports of about 2.03 tonnes of Zambian gold worth $107.6m during the same year.
By contrast, Bank of Zambia data put the country’s total gold export earnings at just $127.5m in 2023. Official earnings rose to $261.6m in 2024 and $345.6m in 2025, but the earlier mismatch has intensified scrutiny of how Zambia tracks and captures value from its gold sector.
Gold figures reveal striking mismatch
The discrepancy becomes even more pronounced when the same product category is compared directly.
WITS records Zambia reporting just $61,800 in exports of unwrought non-monetary gold to the UAE in 2023, while the UAE recorded nearly $1.79bn in imports of the same product category from Zambia.
Such mirror-trade differences do not automatically mean the entire gap represents smuggling or undeclared production. Discrepancies can arise from differences in valuation, timing, transit routes, country-of-origin classifications and reporting procedures.
But the scale of the divergence presents a significant challenge for Lusaka: large volumes of gold reported by destination countries as originating in Zambia do not appear correspondingly in Zambia’s reported export data.
That has strengthened the case for bringing artisanal miners, traders and gold buyers into a system capable of improving traceability, export reporting and government revenue collection.
ZCCM-IH leads gold push
The government has already placed ZCCM-IH at the centre of that strategy.
In August 2025, ZCCM-IH announced that the Zambian government had formally mandated it to lead the formalisation, development and transformation of the country’s gold sector.
The initiative is intended to bring greater structure to artisanal and small-scale mining, expand local participation and ensure Zambia derives more economic value from domestic production.
ZCCM-IH’s Zambia Gold Company also holds a nationwide mandate covering gold exploration, mine development, production, processing and marketing. ZCCM-IH owns 51 percent of the company, while the Ministry of Finance holds 49 percent.
The group is simultaneously expanding its direct exposure to gold. In May 2026, ZCCM-IH said it had incorporated Kyalo Goldfields Limited with partners to advance the Kikonge gold exploration and mining project in Mufumbwe District in North-Western Province.
The move forms part of Zambia’s wider attempt to diversify a mining economy still overwhelmingly dependent on copper.
Ghana offers Zambia a model
Zambia’s interest in Ghana follows a rapid increase in officially recorded artisanal gold exports after reforms there.
Ghana’s Gold Board, known as GoldBod, says artisanal and small-scale gold exports increased from about 63.6 tonnes in 2024 to roughly 103 tonnes in 2025, generating approximately $10.8bn.
The artisanal sector consequently overtook large-scale mining in both export volume and value.
GoldBod has attributed the increase to tighter licensing, formal aggregation, centralised export arrangements and measures designed to reduce smuggling while improving traceability.
Ghana’s experience has also been presented directly to Lusaka. President John Mahama highlighted GoldBod’s results during an address to Zambia’s Parliament, citing the rise in officially captured artisanal exports as evidence of what stronger oversight can achieve.
Africa Briefing has reported that Ghana’s artisanal gold exports could remain above 100 tonnes, reinforcing the growing importance of small-scale miners to foreign-exchange earnings.
Formalisation depends on incentives
For Zambia, however, reproducing Ghana’s results will require more than creating state purchasing structures.
Artisanal miners will need competitive prices, reliable payments, accessible buying centres and licensing rules that do not push small operators back towards informal networks.
Traceability will be equally important. Zambia needs credible systems showing where gold is produced, who purchases it and how it reaches international markets.
The push comes as Zambia seeks to build on renewed investor confidence following debt restructuring. Africa Briefing has previously reported on fresh investment interest in Zambia’s mining economy as the government tries to raise mineral production and exports.
The $1.8bn estimate should therefore be seen as an indication of the economic activity Zambia believes formalisation could capture, rather than as a guaranteed windfall.
If Lusaka succeeds in narrowing the gulf between the gold attributed to Zambia in international markets and what appears in its own export records, the gains could include stronger foreign-exchange inflows, higher state revenues and better oversight of a sector long operating largely beyond formal structures.
Credit: Africabrieifing
