Audio By Carbonatix
Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has challenged Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin to produce evidence from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report that directly implicates GoldBod in losses incurred by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP).
The Minority Caucus has stood its ground, insisting that GoldBod must be held accountable for what it describes as a "structural bleeding" of the national purse. At a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday, 18 August 2026, Mr Afenyo-Markin argued that while GoldBod's audited accounts may show a surplus, significant transaction costs were absorbed by the Bank of Ghana and not reflected in the Board's books.
"Yes, we concede that it is the Auditor-General who has conducted an audit, but the Auditor-General was not given access to the full picture," Mr Afenyo-Markin stated. "If the Auditor-General knows that indeed the costs of GoldBod's transaction were borne by the Bank of Ghana, the Auditor-General would not declare a surplus in its accounting report."
The Effutu MP also questioned the commercial rationale behind the reported losses, saying, "You don't trade in gold and make losses. No serious institution loses this much money by accident."
He announced that the Minority has filed a motion in Parliament to compel GoldBod's management to account for the losses when the House resumes.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series, Mr Gyamfi rejected claims that the IMF had identified GoldBod as responsible for the reported losses.
He challenged Mr Afenyo-Markin to identify the specific section of the IMF report supporting that claim.
“I challenge Afenyo-Markin to point to any page, paragraph, sentence, phrase, or punctuation mark in the said reference reports of the IMF where the GoldBod was accused by the IMF as the entity responsible for losses incurred by the Bank of Ghana,” he said.
Sammy Gyamfi said the opposition’s position had shifted from claiming that GoldBod itself had made losses to alleging that the institution was responsible for losses recorded by the Bank of Ghana.
“Their position has now conveniently changed from the old false narrative that the Gold Board made losses to the new false narrative, which is that the Gold Board is responsible for losses incurred by the Bank of Ghana under the domestic gold purchase program,” he said.
“Ladies and gentlemen, nothing could be further from the truth.”
According to Sammy Gyamfi, the IMF report states that the Bank of Ghana incurred losses through the sale of gold under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, rather than identifying GoldBod as the institution responsible for those losses.
He said the report put the losses at about $400 million in 2024 and $1.7 billion in 2025.
Sammy Gyamfi said the IMF attributed the 2025 figure to the scaling up of the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme.
He stressed that the finding should not be interpreted as an allegation of incompetence or mismanagement by GoldBod.
“That loss was as a result of the scaling up, the expansion of the programme,” he said.
Sammy Gyamfi also addressed the portion of the IMF findings in which GoldBod features in relation to the reported losses.
He said the IMF noted that the accounting losses partly reflected valuation effects and identified several components of the losses, including fees paid to GoldBod under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme.
“This is the true context within which the name of the Gold Board featured relative to losses under the DGPP,” he said.
Sammy Gyamfi argued that the inclusion of GoldBod-related fees among components of the reported losses did not amount to an IMF finding that GoldBod was responsible for the overall losses incurred by the Bank of Ghana.
He accused political opponents of repeatedly invoking the IMF report without identifying the specific passages that support their interpretation.
“Most of the time, they come in the media, and they say the IMF has said that GoldBod has made a loss of $1.7 billion, and nobody questions them to point out which part of the IMF report said that,” he said.
“They say that the IMF says that GoldBod is the reason for the loss, and nobody questions them to provide proof, and we are all talking about the IMF report.”
Sammy Gyamfi therefore urged those making claims about the IMF findings to cite the relevant portions of the report and allow the public to assess the evidence in its proper context.
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