The National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has described the criticism of the operations of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) by members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as a deliberate attempt to distract the Management from executing an impactful policy.
He said the attacks by the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, is therefore intended to downplay all the economic gains that the establishment of GoldBod has brought to the country.
“Like the COCOBOD arrangement, the GoldBod concept is therefore to control the purchase of gold so that we can use the proceeds to develop the country.
The attack on the GoldBod is therefore a deliberate strategy by the NPP to downplay the gains being made by the government,” he said on Onua TV’s Morning Show, “Maakye” on Septmeber 1.
It is recalled that Mr Afenyo-Markin criticised the GoldBod for making losses to the tune of GHC1.7billion citing an IMF report. However, the CEO of the GoldBod, Sammy Gyamf refuted the claims.
Nevertheless, members of the NPP have insisted that the operations of the GoldBod is inefficient. Speaking during a press Conference on September 1, a former Finance Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam said among others that, “Ghana bought gold, sold gold, and lost money, in the best gold market in 50 years.”
According to Mr Nketia, the various criticisms by members of the NPP are baseless because the Gold Purchase Programme being implemented by the GoldBod is not too different from the Gold for Oil programme they implemented.
“They started with Gold for Oil. They signed agreements to that effect with the PMMC. GoldBod has only replaced the PMMC with the same terms. Bank of Ghana gives money to GoldBod to purchase the gold and Bank of Ghana sells it. So, Afenyo-Markin’s assertion that Goldbod has made losses is unfounded” he noted.
“As a government, we are concerned about the loss that has been attributed to Bank of Ghana. But that does not mean it should be blamed on an innocent entity. Their actions amount to unnecessary waste of time.
They are only serving the interest of those who are against the whole concept of using our natural resources to develop the country,” Mr Nketia stated.
He stressed that the nation has not lost money.
“This is a policy choice we have made and we stand by it. The IMF report on the transaction cost is a trading cost. The nation has not lost anything. The Governor has not lost any money. The GoldBod has done nothing wrong,” the NDC’s Chairman said.
Mr Nketia called for a focus on the benefits the country is deriving from GoldBod.
“We need to focus on the benefits we are deriving from the GoldBod concept. Once all the required processes have been followed, there is no cause for alarm. Some of the benefits we have derived from the policy are enormous- price stability, stable inflation, stable exchange rate, stable cost of land etc, export revenue has increased. These have made the environment good for investment,” Mr Nketia touted.
