GoldBod Saga: Gold Loss Is $1.9bn & Not $1.7bn …Amin Adam Alleges

Former Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam has accused the government of losing approximately US$150 million of tax revenue in 2025 due to the removal of a withholding tax on unprocessed gold from small-scale mining. This loss was not accounted for in the government's financial calculations, according to Dr. Adam. When added to the US$1.7 billion trading losses associated with the gold purchasing programme, the total cost to the country in 2025 reached around US$1.9 billion.

Dr. Adam highlighted three different accounts of the programme's financial outcome provided by various sources, including GoldBod's reported surplus of US$5.45 billion, the Bank of Ghana's audited accounts showing a net loss of US$9.05 billion, and the IMF's identified loss of US$22 billion. He questioned the wide gap between these figures and pointed out that two items accounted for almost US$13 billion of the discrepancy.

The first item was a US$5 billion transfer from the government's Consolidated Fund, described as a recapitalisation bond, and the second was US$7.99 billion in unrealised gains on gold sales. Dr. Adam also criticized the treatment of gold valuation gains in the Bank of Ghana's financial statements and the composition of GoldBod's reported surplus.

He argued that the losses occurred at a time when gold prices had risen sharply, despite the IMF estimating that the programme lost approximately 17% of the value of the raw gold.