By Daily Democrat News Desk
A fresh political and economic storm is brewing around Ghana’s gold sector as the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has come out swinging, flatly denying claims that it has appointed a “sole aggregator” for artisanal gold purchases, amid the raging controversy over an IMF-reported $214 million loss under the Gold for Reserves (G4R) programme.
At the centre of the storm is Bawa-Rock Company Limited, which Ofoase-Ayirebi MP Kojo Oppong Nkrumah alleged had been secretly installed as the exclusive aggregator for small-scale gold, raising red flags about transparency, experience, and accountability. But GoldBod says the claim is not just misleading. It is outright false.
Speaking in a no-holds-barred interview, GoldBod’s Media Relations Officer, Prince Kwame Minkah, set the record straight, stressing that no monopoly exists under the new gold trading regime.
“The GoldBod does not have a single ‘sole aggregator’ in the private sector,” Minkah declared. “We are licensing multiple Ghanaian-owned companies and individuals as aggregators. There is no monopoly, and there never has been.”
According to Minkah, Bawa-Rock is merely the first licensed aggregator under the new framework established by the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140), and not the only one. He revealed that several other Ghanaian firms and individuals are currently undergoing licensing processes and will be announced in due course.
“Being first does not mean being sole,” he emphasized. “That narrative is politically convenient but factually wrong.”
Minkah further disclosed that Bawa-Rock was duly incorporated on May 14, 2025, and met all legal, financial, and governance requirements under Act 1140, rubbishing claims that the company is inexperienced or operating in the shadows.
The controversy erupted after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) disclosed that Ghana incurred losses of about $214 million from January to September 2025 under the G4R programme. The Minority in Parliament quickly seized on the figures, questioning GoldBod’s licensing process and alleging mismanagement in the gold trading system.
But the Board insists the attacks are part of a broader attempt to politicise a technically complex programme.
Adding fuel to the debate, the Chief Executive Officer of GoldBod and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, launched a blistering counterattack on the New Patriotic Party (NPP), accusing it of peddling “uninformed and unfounded” claims.
Gyamfi laid out audited and unaudited figures from the Bank of Ghana, painting a stark picture of losses accumulated under both the Gold for Reserves (G4R) and Gold for Oil (G4O) programmes over the years. According to him, the central bank recorded losses of GHS2.15 billion in 2023 and a staggering GHS4.84 billion in 2024. For 2025, provisional figures show losses of about GHS2.3 billion, which is equivalent to the IMF’s cited $214 million from January to September.
He questioned why the NPP, which he said oversaw cumulative losses of over GHS7 billion under similar programmes, is now demanding probes.
“Under the NPP’s watch, Ghana suffered massive losses, alongside a 27.8% cedi depreciation in 2023 and 19.2% in 2022,” Gyamfi charged. “Inflation during that period hovered above 22%. Where was the outrage then?”
In sharp contrast, Gyamfi pointed to what he described as a dramatic economic turnaround in 2025.
“Inflation has fallen for 11 consecutive months, from 23.8% to 6.3%, and the Ghana cedi has appreciated cumulatively by over 35% against the US dollar,” he said.
Far from fearing scrutiny, Gyamfi welcomed calls for investigations, promising explosive details in the coming days.
“We welcome that probe,” he declared. “From January 5, 2026, Ghanaians will hear the full story. Stay tuned.”
As the dust refuses to settle, one thing is clear: Ghana’s gold sector has become the new battleground where economics, politics, and power collide, and the next chapter promises to be even more dramatic.
