The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GOLDBOD), Sammy Gyamfi, has explained that a reference he made to Ghana’s foreign reserves in 2016 was a “clear typo” and should not be held against him, stressing that he corrected the error before a Joy FM Research Desk article fact-checked and dismissed his earlier claim.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, December 24, 2025, Mr Gyamfi clarified that his intention was never to compare foreign reserve figures from 2016 to 2025, describing such an interpretation as illogical, given that GOLDBOD was only established in 2025.

According to him, the post in question was meant to highlight the increase in Ghana’s foreign reserves from about $9 billion in 2024 to over $12 billion in 2025, which he attributed to the operations of the Gold Board.

“The reference to 2016 in my earlier post was an obvious typo,” Mr Gyamfi said, explaining that the year was mistakenly stated in paragraph seven of his original Facebook post. “I could not have been comparing foreign reserves in 2016 to those of 2025 to demonstrate the impact of GOLDBOD, which was only established in 2025.”

He emphasised that the error was promptly corrected on his Facebook page before Joy FM’s Research Desk published its fact-check report, which concluded that his claim was false based on the uncorrected version of the post.

Mr Gyamfi said he personally edited the post, replacing “2016” with “2024,” the correct year he intended to reference on his social media page.

“I later corrected the typo by editing my original post on my Facebook wall,” he stated, adding that proof of the correction is publicly available.

The GOLDBOD CEO maintained that the substance of his claim remains valid, insisting that the increase in foreign reserves between 2024 and 2025 reflects the impact of the Gold Board’s operations.

His clarification comes amid public debate following Joy FM’s fact-check, which cited the original reference to 2016 in concluding that the claim could not be substantiated.

Mr Gyamfi urged the public to consider the corrected context of his statement, describing the controversy as stemming from a simple typographical error rather than an attempt to mislead.