National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has said the Minority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, erred badly in blaming the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) for losses associated with the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) Domestic Gold Purchases Programme.
According to him, Afenyo-Markin failed to understand the structure of the deal his party people superintended under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration.
He said in a Tuesday, September 1, 2026, interview with JB, on Onua TV’s morning show, Maakye, that the terms that guided the BoG’s Gold-for-Oil programme is what has transpired from the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) era to the current GoldBod.
“When the Gold-for-Oil was introduced in Nana Addo’s time, it is the same agreement that has existed till date. It doesn’t mean if there is challenge with it, you can’t change it. But for the person who started the thing to come and tell us we’ve incurred losses is what is mind-boggling,” he stated.
Asiedu Nketia explained that the operational structure has not changed except for the replacement of PMMC with GoldBod.
“We needed foreign exchange to buy oil, so the PMMC was asked to buy the gold from small-scale miners with the Bank of Ghana bearing all the related costs. The Bank of Ghana engaged the PMMC on commission, and because they have the equipment to assay the gold, that also attracted charges which BoG had to pay to the PMMC. Whatever money was left was what BoG used to purchase the oil,” he explained.
He maintained that the structure as started by the previous administration hadn’t changed. “That was how they started it. That arrangement regarding commission and assaying costs still exists today even after PMMC has been replaced with GoldBod. So how BoG transports the gold abroad is not GoldBod’s business,” he explained.
For Asiedu Nketia, Afenyo-Markin’s conclusion that the GoldBod must be blamed for any losses related with the gold purchases is flawed.
“Afenyo-Markin’s mistake was that once it is gold and it is the GoldBod that is buying it, if there are losses, then the GoldBod must be blamed,” he stated, reiterating the fact that neither the Auditor-General nor the IMF has blamed the GoldBod of incurring any losses.
“And the IMF also didn’t blame the GoldBod for the losses and the Auditor-General also said GoldBod made a profit,” he added.
GoldBod generated $1.315bn in Forex in August, $1.4bn to be generated in September
