The Minority in Parliament is set to file a fresh motion seeking a parliamentary investigation into the $1.7 billion in losses linked to GoldBod’s gold purchasing and trading operations.
Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin disclosed this while addressing the media in Parliament on Tuesday, August 18, 2026.
He challenged GoldBod’s explanation that its audited accounts showed a profit rather than the losses highlighted in an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report.
The Effutu MP questioned why losses arising from GoldBod’s operations should be reflected on the books of the Bank of Ghana while GoldBod retains the revenue generated from the transactions.
“Government has not publicly objected to the findings in the report. Ladies and gentlemen, let me open this by setting the record straight because 1.7 billion losses do not belong buried in a footnote. It belongs in the open where the people who own it can see.”
According to Afenyo-Markin, the IMF attributed the losses to service and assay fees paid to GoldBod, discounts on gold sold to off-takers and exchange-rate losses arising from differences between the rates used to purchase gold and the rate applied for Bank of Ghana accounting.
“In its own words, the losses, quote, are a combination of service and assay fees paid to Gold Board. Discounts on gold sold to off-takers into bracket exporters and most importantly, exchange rate losses from the spread between foreign bureau rates paid to purchase gold and the city reference rate used for BOG accounting.”
He argued that GoldBod should account for the costs associated with the revenues it generates from the gold trade and questioned the identity of the off-takers who allegedly benefited from discounted gold sales.
“The country deserves an answer. Gold Board is happy to take credit for the foreign exchange it claims to have generated but it goes quiet the moment we ask about the very trade that is discounted sales.”
Afenyo-Markin said the Minority was not disputing GoldBod’s reported profit but was concerned about the transactions and arrangements that generated that profit and the losses allegedly transferred to the Bank of Ghana’s balance sheet.
“We the minority are not here to really relegate the profit of Gold Board. The profit Gold Board has published it in its own account. We are here because what happened of the books, the operations, the free fee structures, the discounted sales that made that profit possible in the first place. Substance must always be judged over form.”
He further questioned the decision to have the Bank of Ghana absorb losses associated with GoldBod’s gold purchasing and sales activities.
“Gold Board took Bank of Ghana’s money to assay gold and collect its fees. It cannot claim the credit that comes with the revenue while pushing every loss into Bank of Ghana’s balance sheets.”
The Minority Leader said the planned motion would seek answers on the transactions, the beneficiaries of discounted gold sales and the financial implications for the central bank.
He also cautioned the new Majority Leader, James Agalga, against blocking the proposed parliamentary inquiry, insisting that the matter should be subjected to proper scrutiny.
The planned probe comes amid a dispute over the financial performance of GoldBod, with the institution pointing to its audited accounts as evidence of profitability, while the Minority has cited figures it attributes to the IMF to argue that substantial losses were generated through the gold operations.
