Show where IMF blamed GoldBod for BoG losses –Sammy Gyamfi dares Afenyo-Markin

Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has challenged Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin to produce evidence from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report that directly implicates GoldBod in losses incurred by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP). The challenge follows renewed criticism from the Minority Caucus, which insists that GoldBod must account for what it describes as a “structural bleeding” of the national purse.

Minority Maintains GoldBod Must Account

Speaking at a press conference in Parliament on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, Mr Afenyo-Markin argued that GoldBod’s reported surplus in its audited accounts did not tell the full story of the costs associated with the DGPP. According to the Effutu MP, some significant transaction costs were absorbed by the Bank of Ghana rather than being reflected in GoldBod’s books.

“Yes, we concede that it is the Auditor-General who has conducted an audit, but the Auditor-General was not given access to the full picture,” Mr Afenyo-Markin stated.

He argued that if the full costs associated with GoldBod’s transactions had been captured, the institution’s reported surplus could have been different. The Minority Leader also questioned the commercial rationale behind the reported losses.

“You don’t trade in gold and make losses. No serious institution loses this much money by accident,” he said.

Mr Afenyo-Markin further disclosed that the Minority had filed a motion in Parliament seeking to compel GoldBod’s management to account for the losses when the House resumes.

Gyamfi Challenges IMF Claim

Responding to the allegations at the Government Accountability Series, Mr Gyamfi rejected claims that the IMF had identified GoldBod as responsible for the losses recorded by the Bank of Ghana. He challenged Mr Afenyo-Markin to produce the specific section of the IMF report that supports the claim.

“I challenge Afenyo-Markin to point to any page, paragraph, sentence, phrase, or punctuation mark in the said reference reports of the IMF where GoldBod was accused by the IMF as the entity responsible for losses incurred by the Bank of Ghana,” he said.

Mr Gyamfi accused the opposition of shifting its position on the issue. According to him, the initial claim was that GoldBod itself had incurred losses, but this had now changed to an allegation that the institution was responsible for losses recorded by the Bank of Ghana under the DGPP.

“Their position has now conveniently changed from the old false narrative that the Gold Board made losses to the new false narrative, which is that the Gold Board is responsible for losses incurred by the Bank of Ghana under the domestic gold purchase program,” he said.

“Ladies and gentlemen, nothing could be further from the truth.”

IMF Report Put BoG Losses at $1.7 Billion

Mr Gyamfi said the IMF report referenced by the opposition actually identified the Bank of Ghana as the institution that incurred the losses through the sale of gold under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme. He said the losses stood at approximately $400 million in 2024 and $1.7 billion in 2025.

According to Mr Gyamfi, the IMF attributed the 2025 figure largely to the scaling up and expansion of the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme. He stressed that the finding should not be interpreted as an allegation of incompetence or mismanagement by GoldBod.

“That loss was as a result of the scaling up, the expansion of the programme,” he said.

GoldBod Fees Cited in Losses

Mr Gyamfi also addressed the section of the IMF findings in which GoldBod features in relation to the losses. He explained that the IMF noted that the accounting losses partly reflected valuation effects and identified several components contributing to the losses, including fees paid to GoldBod under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme.

“This is the true context within which the name of the Gold Board featured relative to losses under the DGPP,” he said.

He maintained that the identification of fees paid to GoldBod as one component of the Bank of Ghana’s losses was fundamentally different from an IMF finding that GoldBod was responsible for the overall losses.

Calls for Evidence

Mr Gyamfi accused political opponents of repeatedly invoking the IMF report without identifying the specific passages that support their interpretation.

“Most of the time, they come in the media, and they say the IMF has said that GoldBod has made a loss of $1.7 billion, and nobody questions them to point out which part of the IMF report said that,” he said.

“They say that the IMF says that GoldBod is the reason for the loss, and nobody questions them to provide proof, and we are all talking about the IMF report.”

He therefore urged Mr Afenyo-Markin and others making the allegations to produce the relevant portions of the IMF report so that the public can examine the evidence and assess the claims in their proper context. The dispute over the DGPP losses is expected to continue in Parliament, particularly when the Minority’s motion seeking answers from GoldBod’s management comes before the House.