Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has accused Ghana Gold Board Chief Executive Sammy Gyamfi of conceding rather than refuting a 1.7 billion dollar deficit under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme. In a statement dated Wednesday, August 19, 2026, Afenyo-Markin said Gyamfi did not dispute the International Monetary Fund’s finding, but instead contested which institution should bear responsibility.
The Minority Leader argued that the 1.7 billion dollar loss, equivalent to twenty-two billion cedis, involves public funds irrespective of the balance sheet on which it appears. “This is public money, whichever State balance sheet it sits on,” he stated, calling for a full explanation.
Afenyo-Markin also challenged Gyamfi’s assertion that GoldBod recorded an operational surplus of nine hundred and seven million cedis in 2025. Citing Gyamfi’s own disclosure that GoldBod managed about one hundred and thirty-three billion cedis in DGPP advances and earned an assay fee of zero point two five eight percent and a service fee of zero point five percent, he estimated fee income at approximately one billion cedis. “The plain implication of his own numbers is that the operational surplus he is celebrating is smaller than the fee income he collected from a programme that lost the state 22 billion Ghana Cedis,” Afenyo-Markin said. “Strip out the agency fees and there is no operational surplus to speak of.”
The Minority Leader further faulted GoldBod for claiming credit for macroeconomic outcomes linked to the programme, including a forty-one percent appreciation of the cedi, a rise in reserves from eight point nine billion dollars to thirteen billion dollars, and lower inflation, while distancing itself from the reported loss. “An institution that claims authorship of the benefits cannot describe itself as a passive agent when the costs are counted,” he remarked.
Afenyo-Markin also questioned GoldBod’s funding structure, noting a shift of the Ghana Agriculture and Natural Resources Platform from the Bank of Ghana to the Ministry of Finance in July 2026, and GoldBod’s move to raise funds independently from August. “Three funding arrangements in six months is not a settled model. We view this with curious eyes,” he said. He further condemned Gyamfi’s use of the word “brothel” in his earlier response, stating that such language is unbecoming of a public officer.
The Minority intends to pursue a motion in Parliament when the House resumes to compel GoldBod’s management to account fully for the financial implications of the DGPP. The dispute centers on divergent interpretations of the IMF’s Sixth Country Report, No. 26/213, issued in August 2026.
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Author: Korkor Anumu
