he year 2025 did not merely arrive; it demanded a ruthless accounting of our national character. In the wake of an inherited economic wreckage, a “big mess” that threatened to swallow the aspirations of a generation, Ghana required more than just governance; she required a resurrection.
Under the steady, restorative hand of President John Dramani Mahama, the nation witnessed a profound recalibration of the state. We saw the fiscal discipline of Dr Ato Forson and the monetary poise of Dr Johnson Pandit Asiamah provide the necessary ballast to a ship once taking on water. They served with credit; they served with distinction.
Yet, there remains a profound difference between maintaining a lighthouse and building one in the middle of a storm.
While others inherited the keys to established cathedrals of state, Lawyer Sammy Gyamfi, Esq. was handed a blueprint and a barren field. As the inaugural CEO of the Ghana Gold Board (GOLDBOD), Gyamfi did not just fill a seat; he birthed an institution.
He was not a tenant of tradition but an architect of transformation. In the theatre of public service, many are called to manage, but few are chosen to create. GOLDBOD was not a mere administrative facelift; it was a national experiment in sovereignty.
For decades, our small-scale mining sector was a leaking wound, a chaotic frontier where our wealth bled out into the shadows of informality. Gyamfi was tasked with weaving a legal and operational tapestry where none existed. He had to build the ship while sailing it, under the unforgiving gaze of a nation desperate for results.
The results are not just impressive; they are a blistering indictment of past inertia. In a staggering leap of logic and labour, gold revenues from the small-scale sector surged from a modest $3 billion to a breathtaking $10 billion in a single cycle.
This is not incremental progress; it is a seismic shift. It is the difference between a flicker and a furnace. While others were measuring success in percentages, Gyamfi was measuring it in billions, turning a fragmented trade into a fortress of national reserves. He turned the dust of our earth into the bedrock of our recovery.
We must distinguish between the visibility of the office and the vibrancy of impact. Gyamfi’s success at GOLDBOD did not exist in a silo; it became the oxygen that the rest of the economy breathed. When the cedi found its footing, GOLDBOD was its anchor.
When inflation retreated to single digits, GOLDBOD provided the shield. When interest rates bowed, it was because Gyamfi’s vision had fortified our external reserves. His work was the silent engine behind the fiscal and monetary victories of his peers. He, and the Managing Director of the Tema Oil Refinery defined the difference between this administration and the previous administration.
He provided the Ghanacentric solution to a global economic crisis. He proved that when policy meets a disciplined soul, the impossible becomes inevitable.
The title of Public Servant of the Year is not a pageant of popularity; it is a recognition of rarity. It is rare to see an institution built from scratch. It is rarer still to see that institution become the primary heartbeat of a national recovery within ten short months.
Sammy Gyamfi, Esq. did not just occupy an office; he vindicated a vision. He moved us from the periphery of our own wealth to the centre of our own destiny. In the final analysis, leadership is not judged by the speeches made, but by the structures that remain when the shouting dies down.
For the courage to build, the speed to deliver, and the audacity to transform, Sammy Gyamfi stands not just among his peers, but above the moment. He is, by every metric of merit and morality, Ghana’s Public Servant of the Year.
Author: Raymond Ablorh is a reputable Policy, Research, & Strategic Communication Consultant
