GoldBod CEO Explains Why BoG’s US$1.7bn DGPP Loss Is Not a GoldBod Loss

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has drawn a clear distinction between GoldBod’s financial performance and the US$1.7 billion loss recorded by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP) in 2025, saying the reported loss cannot be attributed to GoldBod.

Speaking at the Government Accountability Series at the Jubilee House on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, Mr. Gyamfi said GoldBod’s role under the DGPP was limited to purchasing and aggregating gold for the central bank as a buying agent, with no involvement in the subsequent sale of the gold, determination of selling prices or negotiation of off-take agreements.

He said the role was inherited from the former Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) under a 2023 Gold Purchase Agreement with the BoG, and that GoldBod fully accounted for approximately GH₵133 billion advanced to it for gold purchases in 2025.

“The GoldBod had no role in the sale of gold by the BoG under the DGPP. It was not a signatory to off-take agreements under the DGPP in 2025. Neither was it involved in determining selling price or sale terms,” Mr. Gyamfi stated.

He further challenged claims linking GoldBod’s fees to the reported losses, explaining that the 0.258% assay fee and 0.5% service fee paid to GoldBod amounted to only 0.758%, compared with the approximately 17% loss reported by the IMF; adding that the fees were legitimate charges for services rendered and were not unique to GoldBod.

Mr. Gyamfi also pointed to the IMF’s description of the losses as partly reflecting “valuation effects”, particularly the difference between the forex bureau exchange rate used in purchasing gold and the BoG reference rate used for accounting purposes.

He noted that the pricing and exchange-rate arrangements were contained in the 2023 agreement predating GoldBod.

Importantly, he said GoldBod did not commence its own statutory trading model until March 2026, after receiving its revolving seed trade capital in December 2025 and putting the necessary systems in place.

The DGPP model implemented in 2025, he stressed, remained the BoG’s programme and could not retrospectively be described as GoldBod’s trading model.

Addressing the broader economic rationale, Mr. Gyamfi said the DGPP was designed as a foreign exchange and economic-stabilisation intervention rather than a profit-making programme, with gold purchased at spot prices as a deliberate policy choice.

He said the scaling-up of the programme, which the IMF attributed to the US$1.7 billion reported loss, also coincided with Ghana’s international reserves rising from US$8.9 billion in 2024 to about US$13 billion in 2025, alongside a 41% appreciation of the Ghana cedi and a substantial decline in inflation.

Mr. Gyamfi meanwhile reiterated that GoldBod itself recorded an operational surplus of GH₵907 million and an overall surplus exceeding GH₵5.4 billion in 2025, according to its audited financial statements.

“The GoldBod will remain focused on its mandate. We will continue to account transparently for our stewardship and we will not be distracted from the important work of creating value for the Ghanaian people from the exploitation of the gold resources of our beloved nation,” he said.

While the GoldBod CEO has clearly disassociated the institution from the reported losses under the BoG’s DGPP, he has not attributed those losses to mismanagement by the Bank of Ghana.

Rather, Mr. Gyamfi’s position is that the reported losses were largely the result of the policy design of the programme and exchange-rate valuation effects, within a broader economic stabilisation strategy aimed at strengthening Ghana’s foreign exchange position and supporting macroeconomic stability.