Afia Pokua, known popularly as Vim Lady, a Radio and television personality, has said the John Mahama government is employing a diversionary tactic to take Ghanaians attention from the sale of 18 tonnes of gold.
According to Afia Pokua, the government is using Mahama using his brother’s jet to divert Ghanaians attention from the bad sale of 18 tonnes of gold, which reports suggest will cause Ghana’s financial losses to buy back.
Afia Pokua added that recent discussions on GoldBod procurement are also being used to divert Ghanaians’ attention from the losses of 1.2 billion when we buy back the gold.
Speaking on OKAY FM, Afia Pokua stated, “This is a diversionary tactic to take attention from the gold that they sold. Ghana had 38 tonnes of gold, and 18 tonnes were sold. We will make losses of 1.2 billion when we buy back the gold. Don’t allow your brain to be diverted. It’s a diversionary tactic. Since the professors from Legon held a press conference about this, no newspaper has taken this matter up.
They have diverted attention to other things, including the president using his brother’s jet. If you talk about it, they will insult you, so no one wants to talk about the main issue,” she said on OKAY FM.
Also, Kofi Bentil, the Vice President of IMANI Africa, has alleged that 18 tonnes of gold were sold in a space of a month. His information reveals that Ghana have to buy back those 18 tonnes of gold for a price of above a billion dollars.
Speaking on Accra-based TV3, Kofi Bentil stated, “These 18 tonnes of gold that somebody has sold, in a space of about a month, we are being told we have to go and buy back that 18 tonnes of gold for a price of above a billion dollars. Someone made a wild decision that has cost this country over one billion dollars.
“There is no sensible government anywhere in the world where someone costs a poor country a billion dollars, and the person sits in their office.
“When it comes to policy making, there is aprior, contemporaneous, and post facto. You don’t know what you are going to say, because you are thinking personally, so you try something, and you get to a point where you are seeing better because you are in it. We expect you to do better.
“We have a situation where one day we woke up and said he has sold 18 tonnes of gold, and then the next day someone has come up with Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Policy (GANRAP) (2026–2028), we are going to buy back the gold, and the cost difference is over 1 billion dollars in a poor country.”
He added, “There is a theory that maybe they didn’t sell the gold because some of these things are paper transactions. I don’t subscribe to that theory, but if it is true that they didn’t sell the gold, then somebody is doing a deal to get one billion dollars. We need some serious accounting for this. This is the job for the opposition.
“We can’t wake up and lose a billion dollars, roll over and make things business as usual. What was the view of the president? Whose idea was it? Who processed it? What is going to happen to those people or that person who made the decision that is going to cost us over one billion dollars? If somebody made that decision or a group of people, it is called a catastrophic failure. The person is either catastrophically incompetent or something else is driving that kind of decision, but here is the point.”
Meanwhile, former Finance Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, has demanded that the Bank of Ghana come clear on the sale of 50 per cent of Ghana’s gold reserves in 2025.
Amin Adam, in his post on Facebook, wrote, “The Bank of Ghana must come clear on the sale of over 50 per cent of Ghana’s gold reserves in 2025.
Between 2023 and 2024, the NPP government worked to increase Ghana’s gold holdings significantly, from about 8.8 tonnes to over 30 tonnes, under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP) introduced by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, then Vice President of the Republic. This policy was explicitly designed to strengthen reserve buffers, support macroeconomic stability, and reduce dependence on foreign exchange.
Against this backdrop, the liquidation of more than half (+50%) of these reserves—generating approximately US$1.5 billion in financial gains—raises serious concerns about policy consistency and balance sheet management.
The central question is not whether reserves can be reallocated, but why such a substantial share was sold, and how the proceeds were used.
If these transactions were primarily undertaken to offset financial losses, then this represents a fundamental shift from reserve accumulation toward balance sheet repair. In that case, headline financial outcomes risk overstating underlying performance, unless one-off gains from gold sales are clearly separated from core operational results.
The central bank must prove that it did not sell the gold to cover huge losses recorded in 2025. How will the Bank report its 2025 losses vis-avis the gains from the sale of gold reserves? How sustainable is this practice where operational losses can easily be offset by the sale of our gold reserves?
The Bank of Ghana is yet to tell Ghanaians that the real reason behind the sale was not to achieve the right proportions of assets between foreign currency and gold, but simply to cover losses occasioned by its poor management of the Bank.
Explanations framed as portfolio diversification must be assessed against outcomes. If the proceeds did not materially strengthen net international reserves, the macroeconomic rationale remains unclear.
References to International Monetary Fund alignment should also be treated with caution. IMF-supported frameworks emphasise transparency, accountability, and the preservation of central bank balance sheet integrity.
At a time when policy credibility is critical, the Bank of Ghana owes Ghanaians a full and transparent account of these decisions”.
Watch the video below:
This government sold 18 tons of our gold reserves to God knows who!
— Ms.NPP (@DashelleAdu) March 18, 2026
Our Gold reserve has been criminally mismanaged by these incompetent braggarts of a government! #abanboneaba pic.twitter.com/NX9k49AK1X