News:
August 18, 2026
Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has declared that officials of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) will face “post-regime accountability” over GH¢22 billion in losses recorded under the central bank’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, citing an International Monetary Fund report that he says exposes a “structural bleeding of our national purse.”
Speaking at a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday, August 18, Mr Afenyo-Markin said the losses—equivalent to US$1.7 billion and about 1.5% of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product—were detailed in the IMF Country Report No. 26/213. He noted that the scale of the loss was far higher than the previously reported US$214 million, with the significant scaling up of the programme in 2025 resulting in the staggering figure.
According to the Minority Leader, the IMF report attributes the losses to a combination of service and assay fees paid to GoldBod, discounts on gold sold to off-takers and exporters, and exchange rate losses from the spread between the forex bureau rate paid to purchase gold and the cedi reference rate used for Bank of Ghana accounting. “The IMF tells us that 17% of the value of every ounce of gold sold by the Bank of Ghana simply disappeared,” he said.
Mr Afenyo-Markin questioned how an institution whose core business is gold trading could record such losses, insisting they could not be explained by market conditions. “No serious institution loses this much money by accident. This is what happens when an untouchable few are handed the nation’s gold with no one watching and no one willing to ask questions,” he said. He accused GoldBod of using the Bank of Ghana as an “alter ego” to evade accountability, adding: “Its earnings are clean on the surface but dirty in substance”.
The Minority Leader also argued that the Auditor-General was not given access to the full financial picture, suggesting this explained the disparity between GoldBod’s reported GH¢5.4 billion surplus and the losses recorded on the central bank’s books. “If the Auditor-General knows that indeed the costs of GoldBod’s transaction were borne by Bank of Ghana, Auditor-General would not declare surplus in its accounting reporting,” he said.
Mr Afenyo-Markin said the Minority would file a motion upon Parliament’s resumption to compel GoldBod management to account for the losses. He appealed to the NDC’s supermajority not to block the scrutiny. “They should remember that post-regime accountability awaits them in the ¢22 billion losses,” he warned.
Ghanamps.com