GoldBod had to ‘pay more’ to beat Indians, Chinese in Ghana’s gold market – Manteaw

Dr Emmanuel Steve Asare Manteaw, the Co-Chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), has shed light on the financial losses faced by the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) in the gold market. According to Dr Manteaw, GoldBod had to offer better prices to Ghanaian miners because foreign buyers, primarily Indians and Chinese, already had established relationships with them.

These foreign players were also supplying resources and equipment to the miners in exchange for gold. GoldBod had to win over these miners, who were already connected to foreign buyers, by offering better prices as the only way to compete. However, this came with costs that GoldBod could not recover through transactions, as it had to buy at market price while foreign buyers purchased at a discount.

Dr Manteaw refuted the notion that GoldBod's reported losses were unprecedented, pointing out that Ghana had experienced losses in its gold purchase program for several years, including 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. Instead of viewing this as an unprecedented issue, Dr Manteaw suggested assessing the losses against the foreign exchange generated and the wider economic impact.

He argued that the economic benefits, such as improved foreign exchange stability, lower import costs, lower inflation, and lower interest rates, outweigh the cost of the losses. Dr Manteaw emphasized the strategic challenge GoldBod faced when entering Ghana's gold market and the need to understand its losses within that context.