Dr Emmanuel Steve Asare Manteaw, a Policy analyst and Co-Chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), has criticised the Minority in parliament over their criticism of losses recorded under the Ghana Gold Board’s (GoldBod) domestic gold purchase programme.
According to Manteaw, the Minority is acting as if Ghana has never incurred losses from gold purchase programmes in previous years.
He argued that Ghana has incurred losses from gold purchase programmes in previous years, but those losses did not attract the same level of concern.
Speaking on Joy News on Tuesday, August 18, Dr Manteaw stated, “There is a certain level of insincerity in discussing this very issue, and we make it look like this is the first time Ghana is making losses in its gold purchase programme. I’ve looked at the data. 2022, we made a loss. In 2023, 2024, and 2025, we incurred losses each year. Why didn’t that become a problem?”
“Let’s say, for instance, in 2024, we made a total loss of GH¢5.7 billion, GH¢1.8 billion from gold for oil and then GH¢3.8 billion from our domestic gold for reserves, a total of GH¢5.7 billion. How much export revenue did we bring in? A mere GH¢4 billion, and so if you had to incur a loss of $1.7 billion to bring in $10 billion, that for me shouldn’t be a problem. It means that what we call losses are transaction costs.”
The development follows Minority Leader and Effutu MP, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, who has said the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has made a GH¢22 billion loss to the state.
According to Afenyo-Markin, the GoldBod must account for the GH¢22 billion financial loss to the state.
He argued that the Minority would not be deterred by attacks or criticisms from GoldBod officials as they push for public accountability.
Speaking at a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday, August 18, Afenyo-Markin stated, “So they must account for the GH¢22 billion loss. It must account for it because it amounts to causing financial loss to the state”.
“GoldBod is responsible for causing financial loss to the state and the Minority will say this and say it firmly and boldly,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter the adjectives that they use to describe or to attack our personalities, and we know a day of reckoning will come,” he said.
The minority further argued that GoldBod cannot hide behind an agency role to escape accountability.
Afenyo-Markin rejected GoldBod’s claims that its role as an agent of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) shields it from responsibility for losses arising from the country’s gold trading operations.
He added, “Gold Board cannot hide behind accounting technicalities”.
“Gold Board is entitled to make the accounting point that it was purchasing gold on behalf of the Bank of Ghana. But agency does not extinguish operational responsibility,” he said.
“An agent entrusted with billions of cedis or public resources remains responsible for the quality of its execution,” he said.
Afenyo-Markin added, “If an institution earns transaction-based income for purchasing, assaying, and aggregating gold, while the financier bears the underlying trading losses, then increasing transaction volumes may increase the agent’s revenue, even where the overall programme destroys value for the principal”.
“Any responsible government confronted with these 22 billion losses should immediately investigate whether the incentive structure encouraged excessive volumes, inadequate pricing discipline, or insufficient attention to trading costs,” he said.
“We therefore reject any attempt to answer the public concerns merely by pointing to GoldBod’s reported surplus,” he said.
Watch the video below:
@ghnow_ “You have made GH¢22 billion loss just from selling gold.” — Minority Leader quizzes GoldBod #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
@ghnow_ Minority Leader Afenyo-Markin Addresses GoldBod Losses #GHnow #fyp ♬ original sound – GHnow
