The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has questioned claims that assay fees charged by the institution contributed to losses recorded by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

Mr Gyamfi said those making such claims may not fully understand the arrangement, stressing that the fees were not introduced by him or the current management of GoldBod.

He explained that the charges were approved by Parliament under the previous administration and formed part of the original arrangement that GoldBod inherited. According to him, he merely took over the existing framework and has since reduced the applicable fees significantly.

Speaking on Twitter Spaces on Sunday, August 9, Mr Gyamfi questioned how the approved assay charges could be cited as a direct cause of losses at the central bank, particularly when the fees were not created by the current GoldBod administration.

“How does GoldBod’s assay fees compel the Bank of Ghana to make losses?” he asked, while insisting that the charges were part of an approved arrangement and were not his personal initiative.

Mr Gyamfi maintained that rather than increasing the charges, his administration had reduced them considerably as part of efforts to make GoldBod’s operations more efficient and beneficial to the state.