GoldBod denies rift with Bank of Ghana after Governor Asiama says he left its board

Pinned summary · as of 01:49

The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) says the exit of Bank of Ghana Governor Dr Johnson Asiama from its board points to no quarrel between the two institutions and no trouble inside GoldBod. Dr Asiama revealed the change at a recent Monetary Policy Committee meeting, after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had questioned whether holding both roles created a conflict of interest. GoldBod answered in a statement on Monday, 28 September.

What we know

• Dr Asiama has said his time on the GoldBod board ended roughly five months ago and that he has stayed away from its meetings since. “I resigned from the GoldBod Board about five months ago or so,” he said.
• The Bank of Ghana is now represented on the board by its Second Deputy Governor, Matilda Asante-Asiedu. GoldBod says the Governor named her in a letter dated 11 May 2026, citing his busy schedule.
• Both Dr Asiama and GoldBod rely on Act 1140 of 2025, the law that created the agency. It lets the central bank take its seat through the Governor or through a senior official holding director rank or above; GoldBod cites Section 4(e), and Dr Asiama says the Act does not oblige the Governor to serve in person.
• GoldBod rejected any reading of the Governor's exit as a sign of a fight with the central bank or of wrongdoing at the agency. Its media relations officer, Prince Kwame Minkah, put it plainly: “That suggestion is completely false.” GoldBod also describes the Bank of Ghana as a daily working partner and the main anchor of Ghana's foreign exchange generation.
• GoldBod says handing a board seat to a deputy is routine. In its account, Deputy Finance Minister Thomas Nyarko Ampem has stood in for his minister from the start, and in January 2026 Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, who heads Lands and Natural Resources, passed his seat to Marcus Haligah, the Chief Director at that ministry.
• The controversy began when the NPP asked whether the Governor's board seat, held alongside his central bank job, risked a conflict of interest. Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, an NPP MP for Karaga who served as Finance Minister, raised it at a party press briefing on 1 September. The party's worries touched on the central bank's funding of GoldBod's gold buying and on reported losses in the domestic gold purchase programme.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  Opemsuo 104.7 reported a Bank of Ghana press release dated 28 September saying the Governor ceased to be a GoldBod board member on 11 May 2026, has taken part in no board meetings or activities since, and that Mrs Asante-Asiedu's seat meets the legal requirement. The release also restated the Bank's commitment to steering clear of real or apparent conflicts. Only one independent outlet has reported the release; TechFocus24 repeats it.
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  MyJoyOnline reported that the Bank of Ghana stopped pre-financing GoldBod's gold purchases from 1 July 2026 and that the government then took over the funding, and that GoldBod said in August it had ended its role as the Bank's buying agent. The Ghana Report, Today and Onua Online repeat parts of this, but MyJoyOnline is the only independent origin.
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  MyJoyOnline reported that the Governor's letter of 11 May 2026 authorised Mrs Asante-Asiedu to attend board meetings, exercise a member's rights and responsibilities, and asked the GoldBod board to extend her the necessary courtesies. Other outlets that carried the letter's contents do not count as independent origins.
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  YEN.com.gh reported that Minority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin announced defamation suits on 24 August against GoldBod chief executive Sammy Gyamfi and two media organisations. It tied the row to a reported US$1.7 billion Bank of Ghana loss in 2025 under the gold purchase scheme. No other outlet in this story has reported the suits or the figure.
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  YEN.com.gh reported that the Governor explained himself in a Facebook post on 27 September and said his departure came before the public scrutiny. Other outlets place his disclosure at the Monetary Policy Committee meeting, so the venue and timing are not settled.
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  OmanGhana reported a Bank of Ghana statement that Dr Asiama stopped representing the Bank at Cocobod, the Ghana Cocoa Board, in May 2026, that a replacement had been designated but not named, and that references to him in current Cocobod board decisions are outdated. Every other outlet describes the GoldBod board, and none has reported a Cocobod seat.
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  Outlets spell the Governor's surname differently, Asiama in most reports and Asiamah in GoldBod-related coverage by Pulse Ghana, Opemsuo 104.7 and The Vaultz News. This story uses Asiama, the form MyJoyOnline and Nkonkonsa print.

Why it matters for Ghana

GoldBod and the Bank of Ghana both have a hand in how the country earns and manages foreign exchange, which feeds into the cedi rate that importers, traders and households follow. The NPP's questions concern the line between the central bank's oversight duties and its financial dealings with GoldBod, including its earlier role in funding gold purchases and reported losses. Clear public answers on who sits on the board and who pays for the gold purchases bear on confidence in these institutions.