Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has said that although the Goldbod has contributed to the current appreciation of the Cedi against major foreign currencies, its effects on the local currency are just 10 per cent.
He made the point that globally, the Dollar is struggling and has depreciated.
“Goldbod has done something, but the effect on the Cedi is less than 10 per cent…globally, the dollar has depreciated,” Mr Bentil, also a private legal practitioner, said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, January 3.
Regarding the positive approval rating for Mahama in the first year, Bentil said, “It is not surprising; the challenges are what happen in the next three years.”
Earlier, Honorary Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, said that GoldBod contributed to the Cedi’s stability in 2025, but it is not the main factor.
He made the point that no one factor dictates exchange rates.
“Because Ghana’s exports are so dominated by gold, and exports are an important factor in exchange rate movements, we must bear in mind that gold prices rose over 70 per cent in 2025 alone,” he said in a post on his X page while commenting on the 214 million Bank of Ghana gold losses.
Bright Simons said that GoldBod’s losses of $214million on $5billion of gold are real. It is significantly higher than the loss rate that has been crippling Cocobod. 2. But those losses don’t tell the full story. The Bank of Ghana also incurs sterilisation and opportunity costs.
The losses, he said, are structural: GoldBod is compelled to buy high and sell low more often than it should. Read the piece for concrete scenarios. 4. Without central bank funding, GoldBod would be insolvent within ~11 months.
“Its undisbursed 2025 budget allocation of US$279 million would last less than one year,” he said.
