The New Patriotic Party [NPP] has accused the Mahama-led government of superintending over a $1.7 billion loss under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme [DGPP] and demanded a full public accounting of how the money was lost.
At a press conference in Accra addressed by the party’s National Organiser, Henry Nana Boakye, the NPP said the loss, which is equivalent to nearly GH¢20 billion at current exchange rates, was exposed by the International Monetary Fund [IMF] and not by the opposition.
According to the party, the IMF’s August 2026 Article IV report revealed that the significant scale-up of the DGPP in 2025 resulted in losses of more than $1.7 billion, representing 1.5% of Ghana’s GDP and about 17% of the value of gold sold under the programme.
The NPP said the gold purchasing programme, which was envisioned under the Akufo-Addo administration by former Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to strengthen the cedi and build reserves, has been turned into a “catastrophic, loss-making enterprise” under the current administration where GoldBod acts as buying agent for the Bank of Ghana.
NPP Takes On Sammy Gyamfi
A major part of Henry Nana Boakye’s statement was directed at the Chief Executive of the Ghana Gold Board, Sammy Gyamfi, who recently defended the programme at the Government Accountability Series at the Jubilee House.[GoldBod]
Nana Boakye questioned the credibility of the GoldBod CEO, describing him as a man with a “documented, repeated, almost compulsive habit of manufacturing falsehood.”
“You cannot separate the two. When a government sends a man with a documented habit of manufacturing falsehood to defend a $1.7 billion hole in the public purse, that itself is a confession. It tells you that they have no defence. Only diversion,” he said.
He cited three instances to back his claim.
First, the NPP said in 2020, Sammy Gyamfi claimed to have authentic video evidence of then President Nana Akufo-Addo receiving a $40,000 bribe. The party said independent review of the full footage showed it was a 2016 campaign donation of GH¢40,000 cedis, not dollars, and the clip was selectively cut to show the then-candidate pausing to write a donor’s name.
Second, the party referenced claims during the 2024 campaign that Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia secretly owned Hubtel and was profiting from electricity bills. Nana Boakye said checks at the Registrar General’s Department showed no ownership link.
Third, the NPP pointed to March 2021 when Sammy Gyamfi publicly called the Speaker of Parliament, his own Minority Leader and Minority Chief Whip traitors for approving ministerial nominees, an attack his own General Secretary at the time corrected as ignorance of parliamentary work.
“This is not a man who occasionally gets his facts wrong. For this individual, fabrication is a deliberate strategy… Different targets, different years, one method. That is a pattern,” Nana Boakye stated.
The NPP also took issue with the language used by Sammy Gyamfi at the Jubilee House, where he described concerns raised by Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin and the Minority Caucus as “reckless,” “bereft of facts and common sense” and a “barefaced lie”.
“That platform does not belong to Sammy Gyamfi. It does not belong to the NDC. It belongs to the Presidency. When a public officer uses it to insult elected representatives instead of answering them, he disrespects the Presidency, Parliament and every Ghanaian,” Nana Boakye said, calling on President John Mahama to act.
Three Questions For GoldBod and BoG
Nana Boakye said the NPP will not accept GoldBod’s explanation as final and insisted on a full disaggregation of the $1.7 billion loss.
He said the loss will not stay on the Bank of Ghana’s balance sheet, as the central bank ended 2025 with negative equity of GH¢93.8 billion, meaning taxpayers will be asked to recapitalise the bank.
“GoldBod’s own decisions created the hole, yet their books conveniently show no loss at all,” he said.
The NPP demanded answers to three questions:
How much of the loss came from foreign exchange differentials?
How much came from the actual buying and selling prices of the gold?
What considerations, judgement and analysis informed management decisions behind each transaction?
Galamsey Link
The statement also linked the financial loss to illegal mining. The NPP alleged that GoldBod cannot differentiate between legally sourced gold and galamsey gold and claimed Sammy Gyamfi had admitted on TV that some licensed buyers may be engaged in wrongdoing.
Nana Boakye said government touts Ghana as the world’s sixth leading gold producer but fails to disclose that over 60% of water bodies are polluted, water treatment plants have been shut down, and water treatment costs could hit GH¢17 billion by 2030.
“A nation that exports gold faces the possibility of having to import water. Let that sink in,” he said.
He accused the NDC of hypocrisy, noting that while in opposition the party held press conferences at the River Pra accusing the NPP of destroying the environment, illegal mining is now worse under its watch.
We Stand With Minority
Concluding, Henry Nana Boakye said the NPP stands “fully, completely, and unreservedly” behind its Minority in Parliament.
“This is not a partisan luxury. This is a national duty. We are not backing off. Not now. Not next month. Not until every question is answered in full, in public, and under proper scrutiny,” he declared.
He urged the Minority to use every tool in Parliament – questions, committee hearings, document requests – to demand answers in writing and under oath if necessary.
