JoyNews Research has fact-checked a claim by Abena Osei-Asare, former Minister of State at the Finance Ministry and Chairperson of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), concerning the losses the Bank of Ghana reported in connection with its Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP).

The claim

Speaking in a video widely shared on social media, Abena Osei-Asare said: "according to the IMF, the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme recorded losses to the tune of $1.7 billion, but if you recall, the Bank of Ghana in their 2025 financial statement reported $214 million as the loss. This loss of $1.7 billion is equivalent to GH¢22 billion, and that is 1.5% of our GDP."

This statement was framed to suggest that the Bank of Ghana had understated the losses tied to the DGPP in its published audited accounts.

The verdict: FALSE

Checks by JoyNews Research indicate the claim does not hold up. It juxtaposes two figures that are not comparable, a full IMF programme estimate against a narrow IMF sub-figure (Q1-Q3 of 2025), and misattributes the smaller number to BoG's financial statements for the entire 2025.

What the Bank actually reported

In its 2025 financial statements, the Bank of Ghana reported a net loss on gold deals of approximately GH¢9.1 billion. At the Bank's end-2025 reference rate of GH¢10.45 to the US dollar, GH¢9.1 billion is roughly $871 million. This comprised a GH¢8.85 billion net loss on Gold for Reserves (G4R) and a GH¢0.20 billion net loss on Gold for Oil (G4O), the latter programme having been discontinued in March 2025.

Crucially, the $214 million figure Abena Osei-Asare attributed to BoG's financial statements for the entire 2025 does not appear there as the reported loss. It is instead an IMF figure covering only part of the year. In its December 2025 review, the Fund stated that "in 2025 through end-Q3, losses from the artisanal and small-scale (ASM) doré gold transactions component of G4R have reached $214 million (0.2 percent of GDP), mostly on trading losses but also on GoldBod off-takers' fees." That is a three-quarter, single-component estimate, not the audited full-year loss in BoG's accounts.

On the $1.7 billion / GH¢22 billion figure

In a visualized data pack from the Bank of Ghana cited by JoyNews Research, the central bank had indicated that it recorded a “loss on doré gold of ₵21.89 billion” (GROSS) which is equivalent to the GH¢22 billion loss ($1.7 billion) revealed by the IMF in the August 2026 report.

This means the apex bank did not understate the gross gold traded losses of 2025 as claimed by the Chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, Abena Osei-Asare.