GoldBod Smear Campaign Won’t Work — Ms Bogobiri Hits Back at NPP

Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in charge of Finance and Investment, Anatu Anne Seidu Bogobiri Esq., has dismissed claims that the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) is operating as a foreign exchange bureau or making losses, describing the allegations as a calculated attempt to mislead Ghanaians.

According to Ms Bogobiri, the claims are not supported by GoldBod’s statutory mandate, its operations or available financial data.
“There is a calculated attempt to mislead Ghanaians that GoldBod is operating a forex bureau and that GoldBod is making losses. But both claims are false,” she said.
She explained that GoldBod was established under the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140), with statutory objectives that include generating foreign exchange for Ghana and supporting the accumulation of gold reserves by the Bank of Ghana.
Ms Bogobiri cited figures reported by the Ghana News Agency on September 2, 2026, indicating that GoldBod generated US$1.315 billion in foreign exchange from gold exports in August 2026 alone.
She said the conversion of export proceeds into cedis should not be misconstrued as forex trading, arguing that GoldBod is merely selling foreign exchange generated from its own gold exports.
“This is not forex trading. When GoldBod generates dollars from gold exports, the dollars cannot and should not sit idle in its account; the money must work for Ghana,” she explained.

According to her, under the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Programme (GANRAP), GoldBod is required to sell its foreign exchange to the Bank of Ghana and commercial banks in exchange for cedis, which are then used to purchase additional gold.

She said the reported August figures showed that US$668.21 million was sold directly to commercial banks, while US$646.59 million was made available to the Bank of Ghana.

Ms Bogobiri argued that the arrangement was comparable to the way large-scale mining companies repatriate export proceeds into Ghana and sell their foreign exchange to local banks.
“This is exactly what every exporter does. When AngloGold, Newmont and other large-scale miners repatriate export dollars into Ghana, they sell to their banks for cedis. Nobody calls them forex bureaus,” she said.

She stressed that forex trading involved buying and selling foreign currency as a business, whereas GoldBod sells foreign exchange generated from its own gold exports.

“GoldBod does not buy forex. It only sells the forex it generates from its own gold exports. That is export proceeds surrender, not forex bureau operation,” she said.

On allegations that GoldBod is making losses, Ms Bogobiri said the figures being described as losses were largely operational expenditures incurred in the course of generating income.

She pointed to GoldBod’s second-quarter 2025 figures, which she said showed GH¢381 million in revenue against GH¢24.7 million in expenditure, resulting in positive net trading income.

She also referenced a technical assessment by University of Ghana economists led by Professor Festus Turkson, which she said found that GoldBod had formalised 39.4 tonnes of previously smuggled gold valued at about US$3.8 billion in additional foreign exchange.

According to her, the assessment put the benefit-cost ratio at 18 to 1 against a reported US$214 million Bank of Ghana trading provision, demonstrating what she described as a significant national economic gain rather than a loss.

“That is a national gain, not a loss,” she stated.
Ms Bogobiri further argued that GoldBod’s activities were contributing to the stabilisation of the cedi and the growth of Ghana’s foreign reserves.
She therefore cautioned against what she described as attempts to turn the GoldBod debate into a political campaign issue ahead of the 2028 general elections.

“If some in the NPP think repeating these falsehoods until they become a campaign slogan for 2028 will work, they should think again. This propaganda is dead on arrival,” she said.