GoldBod now responsible for buying and selling gold in Ghana — Sammy Gyamfi

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, says the institution now has full responsibility for the buying and selling of gold in Ghana as part of a new framework for managing the country’s gold trade. Mr Gyamfi said GoldBod’s mandate goes beyond purchasing gold on behalf of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), as it now directly manages the domestic gold trade and supplies the foreign exchange generated from gold transactions to the central bank. He said the new arrangement follows the end of the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme introduced under the previous administration, stressing that GoldBod should therefore no longer be described as an agent of the BoG under that programme.

Speaking on Twitter Spaces on Sunday, August 9, Mr Gyamfi said: “GoldBod is no longer a gold buying agent of the Bank of Ghana. We are now responsible for the buying and selling of gold in Ghana and the forex to Bank of Ghana.” He added that the change was necessary because the former Domestic Gold Purchase Programme had ended, placing GoldBod’s current gold-buying and selling activities under its own mandate. He explained that GoldBod now has the mandate to independently purchase and sell gold in Ghana and provide the foreign exchange generated from its operations to the Bank of Ghana.

Mr Gyamfi said the change in mandate means GoldBod should no longer be described as an agent implementing the former government’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme on behalf of the central bank. “The Domestic Gold Purchase Programme by the erstwhile NPP government has ended long ago. Anyone who claims GoldBod is undertaking that programme isn’t being truthful,” he said.

Speaking on Twitter Spaces on Sunday, August 9, Mr Gyamfi said GoldBod’s current operations are based on its own statutory mandate and are distinct from the previous arrangement under which the Bank of Ghana purchased gold domestically. He said the programme had been discontinued before the current administration assumed office and should not be confused with GoldBod’s current operations in Ghana’s gold sector. Speaking on Twitter Spaces on Sunday, August 9, Mr Gyamfi said anyone suggesting that GoldBod is still undertaking the former programme is misrepresenting the facts.

Mr Gyamfi said GoldBod’s operations form part of the government’s broader efforts to reform the gold trading sector, improve accountability and ensure that more value from Ghana’s gold resources is retained in the domestic economy.