Sammy Gyamfi, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), has forcefully rejected public assertions that service fees paid by the Bank of Ghana to national gold buying entities are parasitic or financial drains on the central bank’s balance sheet.
Speaking on the operational mechanics of the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, the GoldBod chief explained that the 0.5 percent service charge earned by the Precious Minerals Marketing Company now transitioning under GoldBod and Gold Coast operational frameworks is a contractually negotiated reimbursement for direct operational expenses rather than an unjustified profit markup.
He noted that critics characterizing these administrative fees as parasitic or as unearned losses on the central bank’s accounts are acting out of a fundamental lack of factual information regarding the formal bilateral agreements governing gold procurement in Ghana.
“So, those people who think that it is some agent fee that went to Gold Coast, and he and the Gold Coast is feeding fat, and they are so parasitic to the Bank of Ghana, and they are draining the Bank of Ghana collecting a lot of fees, and some say, ‘Oh, what you see as fees for the PMMC or Gold Coast is a loss on the Bank of Ghana’s books.’ They don’t really have this information. Either that, or they will not be saying that.”
Sammy Gyamfi
Sammy Gyamfi revealed that the purchasing agency assignment granted by the central bank served as a crucial operational turnaround for the state entity after years of uncompensated service.
During a 2022 appearance before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Mines and Energy to review corporate finances, lawmakers discovered that the company had been procuring gold for the Bank of Ghana without receiving any agency remuneration.
The parliamentary committee subsequently mandated formal negotiations, leading to a September 2023 agreement that institutionalized a 0.5 percent service fee under the explicit guidance of the Economic Management Team chaired by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia.
Operational Cost Coverage and Equitable Industry Application
To dispel misapprehensions regarding the destination of the service charge, Gyamfi highlighted the precise provisions embedded within Clause 13 of the September 2023 agreement.
Under the contract, the central bank as the “Buyer” explicitly agreed to bear the 0.5 percent buying agent service fee defined specifically as “operational cost” calculated on the utilized portion of advanced funds.
Rather than generating bloated corporate profits, the fee is designed to cover essential operational expenses, including “logistics and transport cost, insurance, security, smelting loss, and trade margins” necessary to sustain daily field operations. Furthermore, the agreement mandates that the service charge “shall be reviewed annually by both parties as market conditions change.”
The GoldBod CEO further clarified that this fee structure is neither exclusive to state institutions nor an isolated administrative favor.
Private buying agents operating within the domestic gold aggregation value chain, such as Resolute, receive the exact same 0.5 percent service fee for acting as buying agents for the central bank.
Additionally, Sammy Gyamfi addressed the statutory 0.258 percent assay fee, emphasizing that this separate charge is levied by the state agency in its legal mandate as the national assayer and is uniformly applied across all gold commercial transactions in the country, rather than being uniquely imposed on the Bank of Ghana.
Industry Context and the Need for Public Clarification
This thorough clarification from the GoldBod leadership arrives at a critical juncture for Ghana’s extractives sector, as public scrutiny intensifies over the financial architecture of the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme and its broader macroeconomic impact.
Introduced during a period of acute foreign exchange volatility and balance-of-payments pressure, the central bank’s gold buying scheme successfully bolstered national reserves and stabilized the local currency.
However, political commentary and media debate have frequently misconstrued administrative disbursements to procurement intermediaries as net financial losses or quasi-fiscal drains on central bank reserves.
By setting the record straight, Gyamfi’s intervention provides essential transparency for industry stakeholders, international investors, and policy analysts tracking Ghana’s mineral governance reforms.
Delineating the statutory boundary between actual operational expenditures such as security, transport, and assaying and institutional revenue ensures that public debate remains grounded in contractual reality rather than speculative narratives.
As GoldBod consolidates its regulatory oversight over gold aggregation, export, and reserve accumulation, establishing the legitimacy of standard service fees reinforces confidence in the integrity and long-term sustainability of the nation’s precious minerals trading framework.
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