Economist Professor Godfred Bokpin has acknowledged the benefits of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) but warned that its operations are imposing significant financial risks on the Bank of Ghana’s balance sheet.

Speaking about the domestic gold purchasing programme, Prof Bokpin said GoldBod had helped bring more foreign exchange into the formal system by purchasing gold from artisanal and small-scale miners.

However, he questioned whether the programme’s benefits justified its financial costs.

“So it’s a good intervention, but the question is, should it have come at this higher cost?” he asked on PM Express aired on JoyNews.

Prof Bokpin said the Bank of Ghana’s role in financing and backstopping GoldBod had exposed the central bank to losses that could eventually require government recapitalisation.

“To the extent that Bank of Ghana has backstopped it virtually in terms of the intermediary role, providing the financing, being the residual risk claimant of this whole domestic gold purchasing arrangement, that also manifests in some losses.”

He said the costs may not immediately appear in Ghana’s public debt figures because the country does not use a general government approach to account for its debt stock.

“This cost manifesting in losses will not accrue immediately as part of our public debt. So we get to report a lower debt-to-GDP ratio because we are not adopting a general government approach to accounting for our debt stock.”

Prof Bokpin said a more comprehensive assessment of the gold value chain before GOLDBOD was operationalised could have helped minimise the financial exposure.

GOLDBOD CEO Sammy Gyamfi has rejected claims that the institution recorded losses, citing audited 2025 financial statements showing an operational surplus of GH¢907 million and an overall surplus of GH¢5.4 billion.