The Director of the Institute for Economic Research and Public Policy (IERPP), Dr. Kwasi Nyame-Baafi, has alleged that the Bank of Ghana’s decision to sell portions of its gold reserves was aimed at generating “artificial revenue” to reduce reported losses in its 2025 financial accounts.
Speaking on State of Affairs with Joshua Kodjo Mensah on GHOne TV, Dr. Nyame-Baafi questioned the rationale behind the central bank’s gold sales, arguing that the move ran contrary to global trends where central banks have been accumulating gold as a hedge against economic volatility.
“At the time the Central Bank of Ghana was offloading its gold reserves, many central banks across the globe were actually buying more gold,” he said, adding that gold is typically regarded as a “safe asset” during periods of global economic uncertainty.
He further argued that the justification that Ghana was diversifying its portfolio did not align with subsequent developments.
“It didn’t make sense to me back then that all other central banks are actually buying more gold, and Ghana says it has too much gold, therefore it wants to diversify its portfolio and sell about 50% of its gold, only to come back later to buy back the gold,” he said.
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According to him, analysis of the central bank’s financial statements suggests that the gold sales were used to present a more favourable financial position.
“But if you look at the financial statements now, it is so clear that the gold reserves were actually sold to generate some form of artificial revenue to bring down the losses further,” he stated.
Dr. Nyame-Baafi referenced varying loss figures reported in discussions on the Bank of Ghana’s financial position, noting that headline losses of 15.6 billion cedis could increase significantly depending on accounting treatments.
“Without the gains from the gold that was sold in the last quarter of last year, the losses actually jumped to about 44 billion Ghana cedis,” he said.
He concluded that, based on his interpretation of the accounts, the central bank would have been “policy insolvent” without the gains recorded from the gold transactions.
“So it’s therefore so clear that the gold reserves were sold not because of portfolio diversification, but to generate an artificial revenue to bring down our total losses,” he said.
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Responding to questions on whether he believed the sales were driven by debt reduction rather than diversification, he maintained that the financial statements supported his view, adding that auditors indicated the accounts were prepared using internal Bank of Ghana accounting policies rather than international financial reporting standards.
He, however, stressed that while such accounting frameworks are permitted under the Bank of Ghana Act, transparency in explaining the methodology to the public was essential.
“When the central bank does not come out to explain this and allows a headline that says total losses are 15.6 billion, then where is the credibility of the central bank?” he asked.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
