The chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has called for urgent parliamentary scrutiny of the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) finances, demanding formal briefings from the central bank’s governor, the Finance Minister, external auditors and relevant BoG directors over what she describes as a deepening financial deterioration at the institution.
Abena Osei-Asare, Member of Parliament for Atiwa East and PAC Chairperson, made the demands in a detailed Facebook post on Sunday, calling on Parliament’s Finance, Economy and Public Accounts committees to summon key economic officials for a formal accounting of the central bank’s financial position.
She said the BoG’s 2025 audited financial statements show the bank recorded a loss of GHS 15.63 billion in 2025, compared with GHS 9.49 billion in 2024, while negative equity widened sharply from GHS 58.62 billion to GHS 93.82 billion over the same period. The BoG’s own 2025 accounts acknowledge a government obligation to restore the central bank’s capital base through a phased recapitalisation programme running from 2026 to 2032, a commitment she said means “today’s losses become tomorrow’s taxpayer cost, debt instrument, or fiscal trade-off.”
Gold Sales at the Centre of the Dispute
Osei-Asare argued that the headline loss figure does not reflect the underlying severity of the bank’s financial position, contending that the reported outcome was supported by gold asset liquidation rather than operational recovery. “The Bank is increasingly relying on gold sales to contain financial deterioration,” she said, warning that without such disposals, losses would have been significantly higher.
She identified what she described as a fundamental policy contradiction, pointing to the tension between past gold sales and the government’s proposed Ghana National Gold Purchase Programme (GANRAP). The GANRAP document targets the acquisition of 242.68 tonnes of gold at a benchmark price of $4,000 per ounce, placing the estimated budget at GHS 242.67 billion. “You cannot liquidate assets to cover losses and call it stability, and then propose a quarter of a trillion-cedi programme to rebuild the same reserves,” she said.
The broader opposition in Parliament has echoed and amplified these concerns. The Minority Caucus of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has claimed the BoG’s true underlying loss stands at GHS 44 billion, significantly above the headline figure, alleging the lower figure was achieved through accounting adjustments and the sale of approximately half of Ghana’s gold reserves. The BoG has rejected those characterisations, citing misinterpretation of its audited accounts.
Osei-Asare’s Specific Demands
The PAC chairperson outlined several concrete requirements. She called for full disclosure of the costs arising from the central bank’s departure from International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), publication of the complete recapitalisation memorandum of understanding (MoU) including any bonds, cash injections or write-offs, and an independent review of gold-related transactions and associated policy measures.
She stressed that any recapitalisation arrangement requiring public resources must be subject to parliamentary scrutiny and transparent fiscal reporting, and that Parliament must be comprehensively informed of the costs of all financial interventions undertaken by the central bank. “A functioning central bank with a GHS 93.82 billion negative equity hole is still a public finance problem, regardless of its operational continuity,” she said.
