The Institute of Fiscal Policy Governance (IFPG) has moved to clarify the financial standing of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), stating that the entity did not record a GH¢22 billion loss as has been suggested in some public commentary, and that its audited accounts instead show an overall surplus of GH¢5.44 billion for the 2025 financial year.
According to the Institute, the GH¢22 billion figure being circulated relates to losses recorded under the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP), which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has flagged as a quasi-fiscal cost to the central bank not a loss attributable to GoldBod itself. The DGPP, which was used to support gold and foreign exchange reserve accumulation, was fully transferred from the Bank of Ghana to GoldBod in July 2026, with GoldBod now assuming responsibility for gold purchases and related operational costs going forward.
The Institute’s position aligns with figures contained in GoldBod’s 2025 audited Annual Report and Financial Statements, prepared by the Auditor-General and published on the institution’s official website. Those figures show GoldBod recorded an operational surplus of GH¢909.7 million and an overall surplus of GH¢5.44 billion for the year.
The clarification comes amid a wider public and parliamentary debate over GoldBod’s financial performance. The Minority Caucus in Parliament, led by Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has repeatedly alleged that GoldBod is incurring losses and mismanaging public funds, arguing that costs absorbed by the Bank of Ghana may account for the gap between GoldBod’s reported surplus and losses recorded under the gold purchase programme. GoldBod’s Chief Executive Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, has dismissed these claims as false, insisting the institution has not made losses since it began operations and that its results were independently verified by the Auditor-General.
Separately, the IMF’s July 2026 Article IV assessment attributed losses of roughly US$1.7 billion (about GH¢22 billion) in 2025 to the DGPP, largely tied to the Gold-for-Reserves component through which the state purchased doré gold from small-scale and artisanal miners, losses the Fund said were borne by the Bank of Ghana’s balance sheet rather than GoldBod’s.
The Institute’s intervention appears aimed at drawing a clearer line between the two sets of figures, cautioning against conflating GoldBod’s own audited performance with losses recorded elsewhere in the gold purchase architecture.
Story by : Emmanuel Nettey
