The Ghana Gold Board has touted its Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Gold-For-Reserves (ASM G4R) program as a boost to the country’s economy despite associated costs.

The program aims to formalize gold trade, curb smuggling, and strengthen the country’s foreign exchange reserves with the ultimate aim of supporting national economic stability.

The ASM programme was designed to support Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves by formalizing gold trade and curbing smuggling.

“While it comes with some cost to the Central Bank, it has delivered significant macroeconomic stability and restored public confidence in the economy,” GoldBod states.

The Minority in Parliament described the reported loss of $214 million by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) under the Gold-for-Reserves programme as a deliberate design failure, rather than the result of market fluctuations.

Addressing a press briefing on Monday, the Ofoase Ayirebi MP, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said the losses, as cited by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its programme review, expose deep structural flaws in the current GoldBod-led implementation of the initiative.

But the CEO of GoldBod, Sammy Gyamfi, Esq. insists the goal has always been national economic stability and not a profit-making venture.

He has argued that the reported $214 million loss under the Gold-for-Reserves (G4R) programme in 2025 should not be interpreted as a national setback, but rather as a strategic gain for the country.

“Even if the cost of the programme is $214 million, the foreign exchange accumulated, over $10 billion is of immense economic benefit.

“This is a net gain for Ghana, not a loss,” GoldBod noted, highlighting that the expenditure was part of a deliberate strategy to meet critical external obligations and strengthen reserves.