Gyamfi calls on African diaspora to invest in businesses, not just send remittances

The global African diaspora must move beyond sending remittances and become direct investors in businesses across the continent, Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) Chief Executive Officer Sammy Gyamfi has said.

Speaking at the Africa Rising Symposium in London, organised by EMY Africa on 30 July 2026, Gyamfi said Africa’s economic transformation would be strongest when Africans helped finance and own it themselves.

The event was held under the theme “the growing relationship between Africa and its global diaspora, and why this moment matters.”

Gyamfi acknowledged the important role remittances have played in supporting families and communities, but argued they were not enough to create the industries and institutions required for long-term development.

“Remittances are lifelines but investment builds self-sustaining engines,” he said.

He urged professionals in the diaspora to offer more than financial support, calling for their skills, mentorship and experience in governance to be used to strengthen African businesses. He identified manufacturing, agribusiness, technology and green energy as sectors where such involvement could have a major impact.

Gyamfi referred to the Mastercard Foundation’s Africa Youth Employment Outlook 2026, which estimates that Africa has about 532 million people aged between 15 and 35.

That population, he said, could become “the world’s next great engine of productivity” if young people were given the necessary access to capital, skills and markets. Without those opportunities, he warned, the same demographic could become a source of instability.

He presented GoldBod’s reforms to Ghana’s gold-trading system as an example of how policy could be turned into practical economic structures rather than remaining a matter of sentiment.

Gyamfi also revealed that GoldBod intends to introduce gold-backed tokenisation investment products, designed to widen access to Ghana’s mineral wealth. The proposals are expected to include members of the African diaspora.

GoldBod officials previously outlined plans for fractional digital gold ownership products at a financial summit in Accra earlier in 2026. Those proposals included entry-level investments from GH¢15.

Gyamfi made four specific appeals to the diaspora during his address. He called on investors to support African companies involved in producing, processing and exporting goods; to approach investment through shared risk and reward rather than charity; to help establish mentorship networks and investment vehicles; and to contribute to efforts to retain more value within Africa.

He criticised the continued pattern of exporting raw materials while importing finished products made from them, saying Africa needed to capture a greater share of the value generated by its resources.

For diaspora investment to succeed, Gyamfi said African governments also had responsibilities. They needed to provide stable policies, enforce contracts and establish transparent institutions capable of giving investors confidence.

He added that commitment to the continent had to be converted into lasting mechanisms rather than remaining an emotional appeal.

Love for Africa needed to be “organised into institutions, funds, businesses, standards, partnerships, platforms” that could outlast sentiment, he said.

Gyamfi also referred to Ghana’s economic reset under President John Mahama. He described local ownership of important sectors of the economy, alongside welcomed foreign investment, as a central part of the government’s agenda.