GoldBod made over $1.7bn loss from gold trading – Minority in Parliament
The Minority in Parliament has called on the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) to account for losses reportedly incurred through its gold trading operations.
The Minority argued that GoldBod cannot claim credit for foreign exchange gains generated from its activities while distancing itself from the costs and losses associated with the same transactions.
The concerns follow an August report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which indicated that the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, implemented through GoldBod, recorded losses exceeding $1.7 billion in 2025, equivalent to about 1.5 per cent of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, August 18, Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin questioned why GoldBod should take credit for foreign exchange generated from its operations while disowning losses linked to those transactions.
He insisted that GoldBod must account for the full cost of the activities from which it earns revenue, including service fees and losses resulting from its purchasing, pricing and sales decisions.
“If every one of those services, service fees and asset fees were collected and kept, why should the losses that came bundled with earning them belong to someone else?” he asked.
Mr Afenyo-Markin further questioned the identities of the off-takers who benefited from discounted gold sales and called for greater transparency surrounding the transactions.
He maintained that GoldBod could not claim the benefits of gold trading while transferring the associated losses to the Bank of Ghana.
According to the Minority Leader, the issue is not about denying GoldBod credit for its reported profits, but about examining the transactions, fee structures and discounted sales that contributed to those returns.
He also raised concerns over the arrangement under which the Bank of Ghana reportedly provided funds for gold purchases while bearing the resulting losses.
Mr Afenyo-Markin argued that such an arrangement could separate the benefits of gold trading from its risks, potentially leaving the central bank—and ultimately taxpayers—to shoulder the losses.
He therefore demanded clarification from GoldBod on the identities of its off-takers, the justification for discounted gold sales and why losses associated with the country’s gold trading activities were not transparently disclosed.
