Ghana gold buyers went weeks without funds, sources say
DAKAR/ACCRA, Aug 24 (Reuters) – Ghana’s artisanal gold marketing agency GoldBod has not provided funds to its gold suppliers for as long as three weeks, forcing some operators to halt purchases or borrow to stay in business despite surging bullion prices, five industry sources told Reuters.
“The last two weeks were terrible. You could spend a whole day waiting and not receive any funds,” a gold trader in Ghana’s Ashanti Region said last week. Another GoldBod-funded buyer in Ghana’s Western Region said funds had not been received for about three weeks.
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The sources asked for anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the matter.
GoldBod, which makes advance payments to licensed aggregators for gold purchases, in a statement on Monday said there was no funding shortfall and that funding is provided based on creditworthiness, security and risk assessments.
The state agency said its gold-purchasing operations remained fully funded and operational, and it rejected any suggestion the agency had abandoned or was unable to finance its statutory mandate.
Kwaku Ohemeng Amoah, chief executive of the Chamber of Gold Buyers, said GoldBod’s move to fund the trade from its own balance sheet after decoupling from Bank of Ghana may have contributed to the funding constraints, adding that buyers could seek supplementary financing themselves.
GoldBod’s chief executive, Sammy Gyamfi, told a press conference last week that GoldBod raised nearly $839 million in advances for purchases between March and May. GoldBod raised about $75 million through a foreign exchange auction to commercial banks on August 3 before pausing it for consultations with the central bank.
Three banking executives said the Bank of Ghana viewed GoldBod’s auction programme as inconsistent with its operating framework and that both institutions were working to address the concerns.
Ghana, Africa’s biggest gold producer, established GoldBod in 2025 with exclusive rights to buy, sell and export artisanal gold as part of efforts to curb smuggling and boost inflows of foreign currency.
In its statement on Monday, GoldBod said it currently has two licensed aggregators operating under its trade-finance framework and introduced tighter controls from August 1, including due diligence requirements, trade-financing agreements and security guarantees, to strengthen risk management and protect public funds.
The Bank of Ghana did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The banking executives said that fewer than five banks participated in GoldBod’s auction programme, adding that lenders were more comfortable when the central bank backstopped the arrangement.
(This story has been refiled to fix a typo in the headline.)
Reporting by Maxwell Akalaare Adombila in Dakar and Emmanuel Bruce in Accra. Additional reporting by Christian Akorlie in Accra; Editing by Pratima Desai, David Goodman and Cynthia Osterman
