The Institute of Economic Research and Public Policy (IERPP) has demanded immediate answers from the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) regarding reports that previously published quarterly trading reports are no longer accessible on its official website.
The think tank cautions that the unannounced unavailability of these vital public documents compromises institutional transparency, public accountability, and compliance with national governance standards governing the country’s precious metals trade.
“If the reports were removed, GoldBod must tell Ghanaians who authorised their removal, when they were removed, why they were removed, and whether any figures were subsequently changed”
Institute of Economic Research and Public Policy (IERPP)
IERPP stressed that statutory reporting is a legal mandate that GoldBod must uphold without interruption to facilitate effective oversight by citizens and Parliament. The policy institute emphasizes that public access to comprehensive quarter-by-quarter figures remains essential for analyzing gold purchases, export volumes, revenue disclosures, and risk management within the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector.
Statutory Reporting Mandates and Regulatory Parity
According to IERPP, the current development directly infringes upon Section 42 of the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140), which explicitly obligates GoldBod to publish quarterly reports detailing its operations, financial revenues, executed contracts, operational expenditures, as well as responsible sourcing and supply chain traceability metrics.
The policy institute further points to Section 42(2) of Act 1140, arguing that the legislative framework requires continuous and meaningful public access rather than temporary or nominal publication.
Highlighting the necessity for regulatory parity across the extraction value chain, IERPP questioned why GoldBod enforces strict disclosure mandates on private operators while its own portal experiences data gaps: “If reporting is important enough for GoldBod to enforce against private operators, why should Ghanaians struggle to access GoldBod’s own reports?”
Public scrutiny of these disclosures is critical for evaluating market discounts, trading margins, contractual fees, and operational costs associated with the national gold purchase programme.
To underscore what is at stake when records vanish, IERPP pointed to GoldBod’s second-quarter statutory report for April to June 2025, which provided vital benchmarks on Ghana’s small-scale gold trade.
The Q2 2025 disclosures revealed that GoldBod purchased 26,009.56 kilogrammes of gold equivalent to about 780,437.60 ounces from artisanal and small-scale miners at an estimated purchasing value of US$2.62 billion, while total artisanal and small-scale mining gold exports reached 30,361.64 kilogrammes, valued at approximately US$2.99 billion.
Operational Vulnerabilities and Institutional Fallout
A thorough analysis of GoldBod’s operational mandate indicates that the non-availability of historical trading data exposes the institution to severe operational, reputational, and financial risks.
Legally, failing to maintain accessible public records leaves the Board vulnerable to formal regulatory queries and legal actions under Act 1140.
Operationally, the inability of external analysts to verify trading volumes introduces market uncertainty, making international counterparties hesitant to engage in long-term off-take contracts without transparent baseline metrics.
Furthermore, any perception of data suppression harms Ghana’s international standing regarding responsible gold sourcing, potentially triggering heightened scrutiny from global bodies such as the OECD and the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA).
Market Integrity and Governance Reforms
Restoring access to statutory records is essential for maintaining investor confidence and ensuring fiscal integrity within the national gold ecosystem.
Unrestricted access allows market participants to analyze price differential equations such as ΔP = Pexport − Ppurchase, ensuring that trading margins cover operating expenses without obscure leakages.
Should public access remain constrained, GoldBod risks undermining its authority as a premier market regulator, hindering Parliament’s constitutional oversight over public finances derived from natural resource monetization.
Policy experts agree that immediate digital restoration and formal public clarification from GoldBod leadership are mandatory to protect institutional integrity and reaffirm Ghana’s commitment to extractive sector transparency.
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