Economist Professor Patrick Asuming has called on the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) to back its public claims with clear and comprehensive accounting, stressing that transparency is essential when managing national resources.
Speaking in an interview, Prof. Asuming said scrutiny of state institutions should be expected and welcomed, noting that public commentary does not amount to an attack.
“This is about the country of Ghana. When state institutions take actions and people raise questions, it should not be seen as hostility,” he explained.
He also pointed to a shift in GoldBod’s public communication, observing that while earlier responses appeared confrontational, more recent statements have taken a more measured tone by acknowledging reported losses while arguing that the overall benefits outweigh the costs.
“The earlier statement sounded defiant.
“Now, the position seems to be that there are losses, but the benefits outweigh the costs. That is a legitimate perspective,” he said.
His comments come amid claims that the Bank of Ghana is allegedly concealing losses linked to the Gold-for-Reserves programme.
The Ghana Gold Board had previously rejected assertions in an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report that the Bank of Ghana incurred losses of about $214 million under the programme.
The IMF flagged the reported losses as a potential risk to Ghana’s macroeconomic stabilisation efforts, attributing them to transactions involving artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) dore gold, as well as what it described as “GoldBod off-taker fees”.
In response, GoldBod’s Chief Executive Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, dismissed the claims as inaccurate and based on misunderstandings of the Board’s operations.
In a detailed social media post, he stated that GoldBod has not recorded any losses under its gold trading programmes and is on course to declare a surplus of at least GH¢600 million for the 2025 financial year, based on unaudited financial statements published on the Board’s website.
