"GOLDBOD HAS MADE LOSSES", ECONOMIST DR. AYERAKWA MENSAH HAYFORD.

" At a press conference on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, GoldBod CEO Sammy Gyamfi stated that GoldBod incurred no operational losses. He clarified that the reported losses stemmed from the Bank of Ghana's domestic gold purchase programme, exchange-rate valuation effects, and macro-stabilisation policy designs, rather than from structural failures within GoldBod. However, during the Ghana Nti Morning Show on ICAD TV with Nana Nhyiraba Kwabena Asirifi, economist Dr. Hayford Mensah Ayerakwa—a senior lecturer and coordinator at the University of Ghana Learning Centre in Cape Coast—noted that GoldBod had indeed made losses. "Sammy Gyamfi admitted to the loss of 22 billion cedis," he said. "Sammy Gyamfi should tone down his rhetoric and help us understand that their actions are truly for the benefit of the country. Even if there are losses, they must ensure these losses are kept to a minimum," he stated. Small-scale mining leads Ghana’s gold production and outperforms other mining sectors. Dr. Hayford Mensah Ayerakwa added that we need to have an honest conversation about the future of this government and the country, regardless of political affiliation. He believes the losses incurred are definitely more than 22 billion cedis. The losses were initially $1.7 billion, and are now $214 million. Both GoldBod and the Bank of Ghana denied this until the IMF spoke about it, at which point they accepted it. There is a broader conversation that everyone is ignoring. According to the auditor's account of gold bought in 2025, more gold was purchased from small-scale miners than from large-scale mining companies, which is a concern.The question here is: where are these small-scale miners? Many of these small-scale mining operations have now resulted in illegal mining (galamsey). As a country, we must be concerned with the fact that more gold is bought from small-scale miners than from large-scale mining companies, and we must ask: where is the gold? This gold is used to develop the land and water bodies. GoldBod has made losses, but instead of taking responsibility, they shifted the blame to the Bank of Ghana because it wasn't recorded in their books and reported a total revenue of 5.5 billion cedis in 2025, alongside total liabilities of 3.9 billion cedis in the same year. He concluded that most of these costs were not recorded in GoldBod's books, which is why Sammy Gyamfi believes they made profits. Going forward, these costs will have to be recorded in GoldBod's books because the Bank of Ghana has stated that it will no longer absorb such costs. Edited by Deborah Naaki Dowuona.