Analysis: How GOLDBOD's "beautiful" 2025 financials created a GH¢9bn hole at the Bank of Ghana
Ghana Gold Board (GOLDBOD) announced last week through its financials that it had assayed a total of 103.8 metric tonnes of ASM gold valued at $10.8 billion and 101 metric tonnes of large-scale gold valued at $9.7 billion in 2025 - while still ending the year with a surplus of over GH¢5.4 billion.
GOLDBOD was established through the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140) to oversee, monitor and undertake the buying, selling and export of gold and other precious minerals. It effectively replaced the Precious Minerals Marketing Company. The same programme that produced GOLDBOD's surplus handed the Bank of Ghana a GH¢9.05 billion net loss. GOLDBOD was to be funded by a $279 million revolving fund allocated in the 2025 budget, which only arrived in December 2025. For the entire year, GOLDBOD operated primarily as an intermediary - collecting funds from the Bank of Ghana, going into the field to buy gold on the central bank's behalf, and earning service charges and fees on every transaction after assaying the gold.
The IMF disclosed that losses from the artisanal and small-scale doré gold transactions had already reached $214 million by the end of September 2025 alone. The Fund warned that the domestic gold purchase programme posed risks to the financial sustainability of the BoG and that those losses should not be borne by the central bank. The gold purchased was raw doré, which trades at a discount on international markets. The offtaker discount offered by the BoG initially stood at 2.25% below world market prices, later reduced to **1.2
Quick Summary
Ghana Gold Board's (GOLDBOD) 2025 financials paint a picture of success, touting significant gold assays and a healthy surplus. Examining these figures alongside the Bank of Ghana's results, however, reveals a stark contrast - raising questions about the true cost of GOLDBOD's operations.
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