Oppong Nkrumah: 50% of Gold Reserves Sold Off Before Inquiry Could Begin

Mon Mar 30 2026

Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Ranking Member on Parliament’s Economy and Development (E&D) Committee, has raised fresh and specific allegations about the management of Ghana’s Gold-for-Reserves programme in the wake of Friday’s vote blocking a parliamentary inquiry, claiming that half of all gold acquired under the scheme was offloaded in the final quarter of 2025 while calls for scrutiny were simultaneously intensifying.

The motion, which sought the establishment of an ad hoc committee to examine the programme’s design, financial performance, governance structure, and environmental implications, was defeated by a voice vote on March 27, 2026. Speaker Alban Bagbin subsequently declined a request from Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin for a secret ballot, ruling that the Standing Orders of the House make no provision for such a procedure in these circumstances.

Speaking after the vote, Oppong Nkrumah described the Majority’s decision as bizarre, arguing that Parliament had consistently approved the programme since 2023 and therefore bore a constitutional duty to examine its implementation. He raised three specific concerns that he said the blocked inquiry would have investigated.

On transaction costs, he alleged that for every ten million dollars released by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) under the programme in 2025, approximately 15 percent was absorbed by handling, transactional and related charges, a rate he described as unjustifiable and in urgent need of scrutiny. On gold management, he claimed that roughly 50 percent of acquired gold was sold in the fourth quarter of 2025, at precisely the period when inquiry calls were loudest, and questioned whether the government would subsequently repurchase the same gold at higher prices. On sourcing, he argued that the programme’s dependence on small-scale mining gold creates a direct policy risk, noting that while the President has stated that 60 percent of gold exports originate from small-scale miners, independent experts estimate that up to 80 percent of that segment may be tied to illegal operations commonly known as galamsey.

The Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga, rejected the motion during Friday’s debate, arguing that Parliament was not mandated to investigate the scheme in the manner proposed and maintaining that the Gold-for-Reserves initiative was designed as a strategic macroeconomic tool rather than a profit-making venture. The Majority further argued that the reported losses were operational costs rather than financial losses warranting a formal probe.

The controversy has deepened over several months. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report indicated that losses exceeding 214 million dollars were recorded within the first eight months of the programme’s operation under the current administration. Both GoldBod and the BoG initially dismissed the IMF’s claims as speculative and misleading before subsequently acknowledging that certain costs had been incurred. At a sitting of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in January, BoG Governor Dr. Johnson Asiama was unable to produce documentary evidence to support claims that comparable losses had occurred under the previous administration, despite being specifically asked to do so by PAC Chairperson Abena Osei-Asare.

Oppong Nkrumah said the Minority would pursue alternative accountability avenues and pledged that a future Parliament could reopen the matter, adding: “There is no statute of limitations on matters such as this.”

Source: https://www.newsghana.com.gh/