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Member of Parliament for Okaikwei Central, Patrick Yaw Boamah, has raised serious concerns about the operations and financial transparency of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), questioning how the newly established entity managed to issue over 600 licences within just a few months of its creation.
Addressing a press conference in Parliament on Thursday, October 30, Mr Boamah, who also serves as Chairman of Parliament’s Subsidiary Legislation Committee, said the speed and scale of GoldBod’s licensing operations “leave the door open for more questions than answers.”
According to him, GoldBod—which was established on April 2, 2025, and inaugurated its board in May 2025—has already issued one sole aggregator licence, 21 self-financing aggregator licences, 204 tier-one buyer licences, and 420 tier-two buyer licences for activities including gold buying, selling, assaying, refining, and export.
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“GoldBod is not even a year old, so what due diligence processes did they undertake to enable them to issue this number of licences?” Mr Boamah queried.
The MP expressed concern that GoldBod’s fees and charges had not been submitted to the Subsidiary Legislation Committee for approval under the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, as required by law.
“These are business entities paying significant fees to the GoldBod, but Parliament has not approved those charges. Ghanaians must be interested in how these licences are being issued, particularly regarding traceability and responsible sourcing,” he stressed.
Mr Boamah disclosed that he had made enquiries to the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to understand the financial structure supporting GoldBod’s operations, especially given the massive scale of its activities.
He cited reports indicating that $8.8 billion had accrued to the state through the BoG’s gold reserve programme but said there was no clarity on how much of that money, if any, had been allocated to fund GoldBod.
Section 18 of the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140), stipulates that the Board’s funding must come from monies approved by Parliament, yet Mr Boamah said his findings suggest otherwise.
He revealed that after writing to the Ministry of Finance for details, he received a letter dated October 29, 2025, signed by the ministry’s Chief Director, confirming that no budgetary releases had been made to GoldBod since its establishment.
“The ministry said it had not made any financial releases as budgetary support to GoldBod. Consequently, the information I requested does not exist within their records,” Mr Boamah quoted.
Mr Boamah further accused GoldBod of breaching Section 42 of Act 1140, which mandates the Board to publish quarterly reports on its website detailing its operations, revenues, contracts, expenditures, and responsible sourcing activities.
“We have gone past May, June, July, and August, yet nothing of that sort has been published. Instead, we are hearing of GoldBod appointing brand ambassadors and distributing pickups but not fulfilling its legal reporting obligations. That is very dangerous,” he warned.
The Okaikwei Central MP announced plans to file a formal question in Parliament to summon both the Minister for Finance and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana to explain how GoldBod is being funded and to clarify its rapid licensing activities.
“Ghanaians deserve transparency on how this new institution is operating, who is funding it, and whether it is acting within the confines of the law,” Mr Boamah concluded.
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