The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, says the institution’s foreign exchange transactions are conducted within a market regulated by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), which has provided guidance and authorisation for GoldBod to sell foreign exchange.
Speaking before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr Gyamfi explained that generating foreign exchange for Ghana was one of GoldBod’s primary statutory responsibilities. However, he said the institution needed to sell the foreign exchange it generated to obtain cedis to finance its gold purchases.
“First of all, we are set up to generate foreign exchange for Ghana. But in generating foreign exchange for the country, you need to sell that foreign exchange for the country to benefit, so that we can get cedis back to buy gold,” he said.
He stressed that the institution’s foreign exchange transactions were subject to the central bank’s regulatory oversight.
“We operate within an FX market that is regulated by the Bank of Ghana. The sale of that FX is regulated by the Bank of Ghana,” he told the committee.
To explain the regulatory basis for the transactions, Mr Gyamfi said GoldBod formally approached the Bank of Ghana for guidance and authorisation after securing policy approval for its funding model from its supervising minister, the Minister of Finance.
He said the approval was obtained under Section 12 of the Gold Board Act before the institution wrote to the central bank on 23 September to seek guidance on its foreign exchange operations.
According to him, the request was made in recognition of the Bank of Ghana’s role as the regulator of the foreign exchange market.
Mr Gyamfi said the central bank had since responded to GoldBod’s request and provided the necessary guidance and authorisation for the institution to sell foreign exchange.
“And I’m happy to inform the committee that the Bank of Ghana has given us that guidance and authorisation,” he said.
BoG authorisation recognises GoldBod’s mandate
Mr Gyamfi said the Bank of Ghana’s guidance and authorisation recognised GoldBod’s statutory role as a foreign exchange earner.
He told the committee that the central bank’s letter expressly acknowledged the institution’s authority to sell foreign exchange.
“The authorisation and guidance from the Bank of Ghana recognise Gold Board’s statutory role as a foreign exchange earner,” he said.
He added that the letter from the central bank was available for inspection and offered to share a copy with the committee.
“The Bank of Ghana made it clear in that letter that the Gold Board is allowed to sell foreign exchange,” he said.
Mr Gyamfi maintained that selling foreign exchange was necessary for GoldBod to convert its foreign currency proceeds into cedis to finance gold purchases, while ensuring that its transactions remained within the regulatory framework established by the Bank of Ghana.