Bright Simons, IMANI Africa’s Honorary Vice President, has said the losses of $214M on $5BN of gold made by the Goldbod are real.

According to Bright Simons, GoldBod’s losses are significantly higher than the loss-rate that has been crippling Ghana’s Cocoa board.

He, however, noted that the Bank of Ghana (BoG) also incurs sterilisation and opportunity costs, adding that without central bank funding, GoldBod would be insolvent within 11 months.

In a social media post on December 30, 2025, Bright Simons wrote, “GoldBod’s losses of $214M on $5BN of gold are real. It is significantly higher than the loss-rate that has been crippling Cocobod.

But those losses don’t tell the full story. Bank of Ghana (BoG) also incurs sterilisation and opportunity costs.

The losses are structural: GoldBod is compelled to buy high and sell low more often than it should. Read the piece for concrete scenarios. Without central bank funding, GoldBod would be insolvent within ~11 months. Its undisbursed 2025 budget allocation of US$279 million would last less than one year”.

Bright Simons further noted, “GoldBod did contribute something to the Cedi’s stability in 2025, but it is not the main factor. No one factor dictates exchange rates. Economists can prioritise over 15 variables.

Because Ghana’s exports are so dominated by gold, and exports are an important factor in exchange rate movements, we must bear in mind that gold prices rose over 70 per cent in 2025 alone.

Historically, however, such extended gold rallies explain only about 8 percentage points of FX strength. The Cedi, however, appreciated by roughly 24 per cent in 2025 (end-2024 to end-2025. The remaining improvement reflects IMF discipline, debt restructuring, and policy intervention that skewed it away from its likely natural path”.

His post added, “GoldBod’s maximum plausible contribution is therefore bounded and secondary. 3 percentage points would be a fair estimate. Continued losses would not be a trivial matter. They will hit BoG’s net reserve accumulation. And generate additional costs because BoG “creates” the money used to buy the gold and must mop it up to prevent inflation.

The methods at BoG’s disposal for this whole operation are expensive. Thus, losses weaken BoG’s ability to keep cushioning the Cedi.

If the gold price falls, all these risks will be hugely magnified. In a dangerous procyclical way”.

Bright Simons further warned that if Ghana must keep the GoldBod, Ghanaians must pray that gold prices stay up.

“Ideally, stability should not be built on opaque subsidies. Hence, why some of us have urged caution and openness about these state-led gold programs since 2022.

“But if we must keep on with GoldBod and the other gold gigs, then we must pray hard that gold prices stay up. Because, in the end, the ledger always balances”.

It must be noted that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised concerns over the reported losses of Goldbod.

The IMF described them as a potential risk to Ghana’s macroeconomic stability.

They further attributed the losses to transactions involving artisanal and small-scale mining, dore gold and referenced alleged “GoldBod off-taker fees.”

Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament, led by Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi, is demanding a bipartisan parliamentary probe into BoG-GoldBod $214m loss.

According to Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, they in the minority believes state money is being used to buy galamsey gold.

Addressing journalists in Accra on Monday, December 29, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah called for a bipartisan investigation into the operation of Goldbod.

He stated that a parliamentary ad-hoc committee should conduct a bipartisan investigation into all contracts, licenses, intermediaries, and related entities of the Goldbod.

He further noted that Ghana has lost $214 million, heading to $300million under the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Gold Board and urged the committee to call on the two institutions to disclose their fee structures, pricing formulas, aggregator selection criteria, and foreign exchange arrangements.

Speaking to journalists in Accra, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah stated, “We are demanding the following: a bipartisan parliamentary inquiry into the circumstances under which the Republic of Ghana has lost $214 million, heading to $300million, to be done here by the parliament of Ghana. We are asking for a parliamentary ad hoc investigative committee with the power to subpoena all contracts, licences, intermediaries, including this power rock monopoly.

“Under this bipartisan enquiry, we will be expecting the BoG and the GoldBod to publish the fee structure, the pricing formula, the aggregator selecting criteria and all foreign exchange arrangements that they have tied to this scheme, which has led to this loss.

“…One of the things we will be asking for is the suspension of permits in forest reserves and the introduction of serious measures on traceability because, as at now, we have every reason to believe that state money is being used to buy Galamsey gold…Where negligence or corruption is proven, prosecutions must follow, and all recoverable funds must be given back to the state,” Nkrumah stated.

See the post below:

I thought my last piece on the GoldBod losses was clear & lucid. But even finance-steeped friends said I needed to be more focused on 3 questions: how did the losses come about, how burdensome are they, and whether they are a low price to pay for the high benefits of Cedi… pic.twitter.com/2Hqw1vQWMv

— Bright Simons (@BBSimons) December 30, 2025