Arua — If you asked Ugandans, "What is Suriname?" most would likely give incorrect answers. Suriname is a country. Located 9,804 km from Uganda, on the northeastern coast of South America in the Amazon region, Suriname is known for its vast tropical rainforests and widespread illegal gold mining, which threatens these forests.
Despite the huge distance between the two countries, 633 kg of gold worth about US$24 million from Suriname ended up in Uganda in 2019, according to United Nations trade data. Over the past decade, Uganda has become a gold trading hub in the region. With lax regulations and the involvement of powerful figures, the country has earned a notorious reputation as the "epicenter of gold laundering in Africa," as J.R. Mailey, an expert on corruption at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, told the New York Times recently.
Between 2015 and 2023, more than 280,000 kg of gold, valued at $13 trillion, entered Uganda, according to our analysis of UN Comtrade data. This gold came from across the world, including sanctioned countries like Zimbabwe and Venezuela. But much more questionable has been gold coming from neighboring states like the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and most recently Sudan, where its fueling conflicts.
Conflict minerals across the Great Lakes region have been defined to include tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold. The New York Times story of December 11th, 2024 mentioned a high-ranking Ugandan security official on a plane flying Sudan gold from Juba. The gold is linked to Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary force fighting the government army in the ongoing civil war.
For decades, the Panel of UN Experts reports on Congo and other publications have detailed how gold smuggled from the country ends up in Uganda. One of the most recent UN Panel of Experts reports, published in 2024, revealed that Metal Testing and Smelting Company, a Kampala-based firm, organized a scheme to transport gold from Congo to Arua City, northern Uganda. The company had pre-financed some of the smugglers involved in the operation.
The company sent three people to Arua to pick up gold delivered by smugglers. "The three individuals' role was limited to checking the gold's authenticity and transferring the money provided, either in cash or through a bank transfer. The individuals reported multiple weekly operations worth 20 kg of gold each," the report said
We contacted Kennedy Apangu, one of the directors of the Metal Testing and Smelting Company declined to speak to URN. "Uganda is used as a transit route for most illicit gold," Don Bwesigye, a mineral policy analyst in the Greater Lakes Region said. "Statistics including that from Uganda Revenue Authority and UN are exact; they give you those illicit indicators. Why does Bosnia gold come here if the market is in India or Dubai?"
A common characteristic of gold imported into Uganda, Bwesigye says, is that it comes from countries undergoing conflicts. Flowing from across the world, gold has fueled the establishment of gold refineries in Kampala. President Yoweri Museveni opened the African Gold Refinery, the first gold refinery in Uganda in 2017.
Pleased by the feat, Museveni warned, "I strongly advise government officials against frustrating these investors, as they will be dealt with harshly." The rise in gold refineries has been as astronomical as the volumes of precious metal flowing into the country. As of 2025, the country had licensed nine refineries. Euro Gold Refinery is one of the precious metal processing facilities that has sprung up in Kampala. URN visited Euro Gold Refinery offices on Plot One Katego Road Kamwokya in Kampala city to find out the source of gold, which is part of the country's export portfolio.
Ben Feni, the Director of the company said that his refinery buys gold from traders within the country and other dealers come only for refining purposes before they resell it to other dealers. He also said traders source gold from Artisanal miners within Uganda and he owns a mining site where on a good day he can mine up to 500 grams of gold.
Probing whether gold sourced from DRC and South Sudan ends up in his refinery, Feni had no straight answer but instead said that the people from the countries are brothers and business partners only separated by colonial borders.
According to his company website, Euro Gold refinery partners with small-scale miners in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to facilitate the export of their gold abroad.
A gold trader based in Arua city who preferred anonymity told URN that they buy the gold from the dealers in Durba, Sambia, and Dungu among other towns in DRC before they smuggle it to Arua city en route to Kampala.
He narrated that gold is always wrapped into polythene bags before they tie it on motorbikes and ride it through porous borders to Arua city to avoid detection at customs. He added that once they arrive in Arua city, the gold is sold within refineries run by Indians and other traders who transfer it to Kampala city before it is aggregated with others for re-export.
A favorable laundering environment
Bwesigye said that the absence of traceability mechanisms at URA and the lack of documentation for local gold production at the Department of Geological Survey and Mines has eased smuggling.
Without stringent mechanisms, Bwesigye said, dealers together with foreign partners get gold from countries like DRC and declare its origins as other countries to evade sanctions associated with it.
Bwesigye further said zero tax policy on gold imports has made Uganda a magnet for gold from all questionable sources of "cleaning state" for the mineral before it is re-exported.
But due to pressure from the international community, the government has been sending signals that it might tighten up. In 2024, Uganda attained the mineral certification scheme of the International Conference on the Greater Lakes Region (ICGLR) which is part of the regional Initiative against the illegal exploitation of natural resources.
The ICGLR Certificate is supposed to confirm a mineral shipment is conflict-free and meets its ethical sourcing standards, ensuring it's free from illegal influence and responsibly sourced from mines to markets. The certification is a tool designed to curb the illegal trade of minerals and promote transparency and accountability in the mineral supply chain.
Although it is a compulsory regional standard for certification of the 3Ts (tin, tantalum, tungsten) and gold sourced from or transiting across the ICGLR Member States, the tool has covered one mineral leaving a grey area for the illicit trade. David Ssebaggala, a Member of the ICGLR Audit Committee said currently the Mineral certification scheme covers only Tin because it's bulky and easy to track, unlike gold.
Ssebaggala said that although the secretariat is equally concerned over reports of illicit gold and wants the scheme to cover the mineral, a lot of resources are needed to put systems in place to ensure compliance which are not readily available.
"Unlike other bulky minerals, a smuggler can melt the gold and move it in pockets, something you can't detect. Secondly, to fight illicit gold trade, we need to deploy along porous borders, customs, and mines but we don't have that staff.ICGLR depends on limited donor funding. The time is now to fight illicit trade and we need to take broader steps including funding the secretariat to meet its objectives" Ssebaggala said
Agnes Alaba, the Commissioner of the Department of Geological Survey and Mining said that ICGLR implementation and other interventions in the pipeline will help address the issue of illicit trade because they will enhance the traceability of minerals by tracking gold from the point of origin to export. Given that certification is a requirement for both importers and exporters, Alaba said this will close loopholes used by those who use Uganda as a transit for gold exports.
From talking to action
To ensure compliance with ICGLR certification, Irene Bateebe the permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development issued a notice on 20th December 2024 directing all gold purchasers to ensure they acquire the licenses, certificates of origin of minerals and other related documents before dealing in the mineral.
Bateebe also directed purchasers to verify the authenticity of gold which includes its source, purity and obtain proof of purchase for record-keeping and compliance.
In addition, she ordered that the dealer must present proof that gold has been refined to 99.9% level and payment of $200 to the Uganda Revenue Authority.
"Import or export permits will only be granted per consignment after meeting all the requirements," Bateebe said. The lack of implementation of these policies could lead Uganda back to the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international organization that combats money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing, experts have warned.
Uganda was removed from the grey list last year. Together with Rwanda, they are the only countries in the region not currently on the FATF grey list. "We face risks of financial flows from illicit mining and neighboring countries, most of which are grey-listed except for Rwanda," experts at PWC, an audit and consulting firm, warned last year.
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Sydney Asubo, the former Executive Director of the Financial Intelligence Authority has argued that "the money laundering threat from the smuggling of gold" is high, as is the overall money laundering vulnerability in the sector.
The high money laundering risk is largely driven by poor knowledge of anti-money laundering measures among players in licensed entities, the low effectiveness of compliance functions, and inadequate supervision and oversight.
Asubo further added that dealers in precious metals and stones operate under the radar, and the licensing regime does not cover artisanal miners, who constitute the majority-posing a significant money laundering risk.
Is gold laundering good for the economy?
While gold inflows are questionable, the government sees it as good for the economy. Given that the largest foreign debt is in dollars, Moses Kaggwa the Director of Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Finance, Economic Planning and Development said the country needs the same currency for repayments.
"Gold helps us to attract in more dollars to boost our capacity to service the debts and promote economic growth," he said. Kaggwa added that apart from debt repayments, the dollar as a currency is crucial in enabling traders to buy products abroad of which many are used in the industrialization of the country. " Gold trade now plays a big role in our economy and with more actors coming on board, the sector certainly is crucial for the development of the country," Kaggwa said.
Kaggwa noted that apart from revenue, the sector is also employing more people working as artisanal miners across the mining sites in the country. Further, the government is looking at keeping some of the gold within the country.
Michael Atingi-Ego, the Governor recently said that the central bank will also embark on buying gold to help accumulate foreign currency reserves and address operational challenges. "Given the increased diversity, frequency, and also shocks that have adversely affected our capacity to fulfill our mandate, we have had to look for ways to overcome all these challenges," Atingi said.
