The Personal Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Mr Annan Perry, has rejected claims that the state-owned gold trading institution is engaged in foreign exchange trading.
According to him, the mandate of GoldBod is, among other objectives, to generate foreign exchange for the country, as provided under Section 2(b) of the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140).
Mr Perry explained that when GoldBod generates foreign exchange through its gold exports, the institution is expected to sell the foreign currency to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and/or its bilateral commercial banks in exchange for cedis.
He questioned how such transactions could reasonably be described as foreign exchange trading.
“How can anyone reasonably describe the sale of dollars by an entity to its bankers as FX trading?” he asked.
Mr Perry drew a comparison with large-scale mining companies, which, he said, similarly sell foreign exchange generated from their gold exports to their commercial banks after repatriating the funds into their Ghanaian accounts.
He argued that such transactions by mining companies are not considered forex bureau activities and maintained that the same principle should apply to GoldBod.
“FX trading involves buying and selling FX. The GoldBod does not buy FX. It only sells the FX it generates from its gold exports,” Mr Perry stated.
His comments were in response to criticisms surrounding GoldBod’s handling of foreign exchange and sought to clarify the institution’s role in Ghana’s foreign exchange market.
Mr Perry also questioned the basis for criticisms from a former Finance Minister, describing such commentary as “mischievous” and insisting that GoldBod’s foreign exchange transactions are directly linked to its statutory mandate of generating foreign exchange for the country.
