Ignatius Kwesi Afrifa
The Western Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ignatius Kwesi Afrifa, has expressed concern over the alleged financial losses involving the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod).
He said the reported GH¢22 billion loss could not simply be dismissed.
According to him, when the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) was performing similar duties as GoldBod, Ghanaians did not witness the current controversies.
“If this had happened during the time of the NPP, Ghana would have come to its knees,” he said.
It would be recalled that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in its recent report, indicated that GoldBod recorded a $1.7 billion, approximately GH¢22 billion, loss under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP).
Mr. Afrifa noted that the Chief Executive Officer of GoldBod, Sammy Gyamfi, was the same person who led demonstrators to accuse the then Governor of the Bank of Ghana under the previous administration of causing financial loss to the state.
“Now Ghanaians are quiet and watching what is going on, but I believe they will speak through the ballot box in the next general election,” he stressed. He told journalists that the Regional Executives of the party will soon come out with their official position on the issue.
Meanwhile, the Regional Secretary of the party, Kwasi Bonzoh, said whether the loss was incurred by GoldBod or the Bank of Ghana, the country had suffered financially and deserved clear explanations.
He accused the GoldBod CEO of failing to address the substantive concerns raised by the Minority Leader at a press conference, and instead resorting to personal attacks.
Mr. Bonzoh said the next NPP government will scrutinise the reported $1.7 billion loss recorded under the DGPP, to settle the controversy over the transactions.
He explained that GoldBod is the anchor of the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, and the losses reported by the IMF arose from operations GoldBod itself executed as the state’s gold buying agent.
He said there is a contradiction in the GoldBod CEO’s recent remarks. “In one breath, he says DGPP losses are the inevitable by-product of a policy never designed to profit, and therefore no one, least of all GoldBod, should be held responsible for them. In the next, he credits the Board for the ‘scaling up’ of that same programme in 2025.
“Government and GoldBod cannot have it both ways. If the scaling up of the DGPP in 2025 was significant enough to take credit for reserves, the stabilisation of the cedi against the dollar and inflation coming down, it was significant enough to be responsible for the losses,” he added.
He commended the Minority in Parliament for pushing to ensure the Speaker accepts a thorough probe, adding, “I am expecting that Sammy Gyamfi will be summoned to explain the transactions to Ghanaians.”
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi