The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Johnson Asiama, has appealed to the finance minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson to consider a sustainable financing structure for Ghana Gold Board’s (GoldBod) trading model.
Responding to questions about the losses borne by the Bank of Ghana on behalf of GoldBod in its gold purchasing activities, Dr. Asiama noted that support from the Finance Ministry would be crucial.
According to him, the GoldBod’s operations form a significant part of the Gold for Reserves programme, which has contributed to strengthening the country’s reserves.
Speaking at the Public Accounts Committee hearing, Dr. Asiama remarked that “It’s not a question of shutting it down, but enhancing its efficiency looking at the inefficiencies and taking them out.”
“The best thing now, in the national interest, is to look again at the trading model and to, for example, decide: should the Ministry of Finance make a budgetary allocation to take care of the costs, given that this is supporting our reserves build-up? Those are the type of questions we need to agree on.”
He added that the central bank had already made progress in addressing some of the inefficiencies and called for a collective national effort to ensure the success of the programme.
“In the case of the Gold for Reserves, as the name suggests, the objective was to help us build reserves… and the evidence is clear,”, he added.
“You will see the reductions that we have brought to bear. So going forward, let’s look at these aspects that we can fix in the interest of the country. And it calls for a unified approach”, he explained.
Dr. Asiama emphasised the need for a policy rethink on how GoldBod is financed to avoid further financial pressure on the BoG.
“The best thing now, in the national interest, is to look again at the trading model and to, for example, decide: should the Ministry of Finance make a budgetary allocation to take care of the costs, given that this is supporting our reserves build-up? Those are the type of questions we need to agree on.”
The Bank of Ghana have been under fire in the last couple of weeks after the International Monetary Fund reveled in its 5th review of Ghana’s ongoing IMF programme that losses from the artisanal and small-scale gold transactions under the programme had reached $214 million by the end of September 2025.
While GoldBod itself has indeed recorded profits, those gains have come at the expense of the central bank, which has absorbed the bulk of the losses generated by the programme.
Meanwhile, the Majority Caucus in Parliament has rebutted the claim. The Caucus said the amount was a transactional and insurance cost the GoldBod incurred in its gold trading activities for 2025.
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