The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has told Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the Board does not trade in foreign exchange and only sells forex generated through its statutory gold operations.
Mr Gyamfi said the Board was established under the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140), with a mandate to generate foreign exchange for Ghana and support the Bank of Ghana's gold reserve accumulation.
"The Gold Board does not trade currency. The word trade means or connotes the buying and selling of a commodity. The Gold Board does not buy currency," he told the Committee on Tuesday, October 13, 2026.
He explained that, unlike licensed foreign exchange dealers who buy and sell currencies, the Board sells only the foreign exchange generated through its statutory operations.
"We only sell effects that we generate from our statutory functions. And that is grounded on Section 2B of the Ghana Gold Board Act, which mandates us to generate foreign exchange," he said.
Mr Gyamfi said selling the foreign exchange generated through its operations was necessary to fulfil the Board's mandate, as the proceeds provide the cedis needed to purchase gold. He added that the Board operates within a foreign exchange market regulated by the Bank of Ghana.
The Board's CEO disclosed that it wrote to the central bank on September 23, 2026, seeking guidance and authorisation for its funding model after obtaining policy approval from the Minister of Finance. "I'm happy to inform the committee that the Bank of Ghana has given us that guidance and authorisation," he said.
Committee requests correspondence
The issue arose when the Chairperson of the Committee, Mrs Abena Osei Asare, questioned whether the Board trades in foreign currency and whether it holds a Bank of Ghana licence to do so.
Mr Gyamfi maintained that the Board does not trade in foreign exchange as a commodity, explaining that it generates foreign exchange through its operations and sells the proceeds to the central bank and commercial banks in exchange for cedis to finance gold purchases.
"The GoldBod does not trade currency. The word trade means, or connotes the buying and selling of a commodity. The GoldBod does not buy currency. The GoldBod was established by Act 1140 to generate foreign exchange for the country. So we are a major foreign exchange earner for Ghana. And so when we generate that foreign exchange, we need to make it available to the country. That is, make it available to the central bank, make it available to the commercial banks. And so that is the context within which we sell," he said.
Mr Gyamfi said the Board wrote to the Bank of Ghana on September 23 after securing policy approval for its funding model from the Finance Minister, in line with Section 12 of the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140). He said the central bank provided guidance and authorisation for the foreign exchange sales.
Committee members requested a copy of the correspondence to establish whether that authorisation amounted to a formal licence.
