KON, Sammy Gyamfi Lock Horns Over BoG Report

A major political and economic confrontation has erupted between the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) over the interpretation of the 2025 audited financial statements of the Bank of Ghana, with Ofoase-Ayirebi MP, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah and GoldBod Chief Executive Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, at the centre of the escalating dispute.

The controversy, which has quickly evolved into one of the country’s most heated economic debates in recent months, revolves around conflicting interpretations of the central bank’s reported losses for the 2025 financial year.

At the heart of the disagreement is whether the Bank of Ghana’s losses should be officially regarded as GH¢15.6 billion, as maintained by government officials and the NDC, or GH¢34.9 billion as argued by the Minority in Parliament.

The debate began after the Bank of Ghana released its audited 2025 financial statements, showing an operating loss of GH¢15.63 billion. The accounts also recorded an additional GH¢19.32 billion under Other Comprehensive Income (OCI), a category in financial reporting that often captures unrealised gains and losses, exchange differences and asset revaluations.

While the NDC government insists that the official operating loss remains GH¢15.6 billion, the Minority Caucus argues that the combined effect of both figures reflects the true financial deterioration of the central bank.

The issue gained national attention after Mr Oppong Nkrumah addressed a press conference on behalf of the Minority on Sunday, May 3, 2026 during which he accused government officials of understating the extent of the Bank of Ghana’s losses.

According to the former Information Minister, the government and its communicators were misleading Ghanaians by focusing solely on the operating loss figure, while ignoring additional losses captured elsewhere in the financial statements.

“The Government and its spin doctors are trying to convince the people of Ghana that the loss is GHS15.6 billion. We regret to tell the people of Ghana that this is not true. The true operating loss of the Bank is actually GHS34.9 billion cedis,” he said, during the press conference.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah went further to argue that if proceeds from certain gold sales were added back into the calculations, the losses could rise to approximately GH¢44 billion.

“And in fact, if you add back the GHS9.6 billion proceeds from the gold sales, which was hurriedly done to reduce the loss, the recalculated loss is actually GHS44 billion,” he stated.

The Minority’s interpretation immediately triggered strong pushback from government officials and NDC communicators, particularly Sammy Gyamfi, who accused Mr Oppong Nkrumah of deliberately misrepresenting accounting principles to exaggerate the central bank’s financial difficulties.

Speaking on TV3’s Key Points programme, Mr Gyamfi described the Minority’s analysis as “voodoo mathematics” and insisted that the audited Profit and Loss statement, and not Other Comprehensive Income, is the internationally accepted basis for determining an institution’s operating performance.

He defended the integrity of the audited accounts prepared by KPMG and argued that unrealised valuation changes captured under OCI should not be treated as operating losses.

According to him, the GH¢15.6 billion operating loss remains the official and legitimate figure for assessing the financial health of the central bank.

Oppong Nkrumah’s facebook post

The dispute, however, intensified further after Mr Oppong Nkrumah issued a detailed Facebook response, accusing Mr Gyamfi of attempting to divert public attention away from what he described as the Bank of Ghana’s substantial losses and the NDC government’s failure to maintain financial discipline at the central bank.

“Sammy, I understand your intention to turn this into a contest between us. You want to divert attention from the Bank of Ghana’s substantial loss of GH¢34.9 billion and your party’s broken promise of financial discipline at the Bank of Ghana,” Mr Oppong Nkrumah wrote.

The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Economy and Development Committee argued that the Bank of Ghana’s own balance sheet supports the broader GH¢34.9 billion figure because both the operating loss and the OCI losses reduced the institution’s net equity.

“The Bank of Ghana itself, on page 16, combines both figures and reduces its net equity by the full GH¢34.9 billion, not GH¢15 billion. The central bank’s own balance sheet has already settled this issue,” he stated.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah further claimed that the accounting treatment used in the Bank of Ghana’s 2024 and 2025 financial statements differs significantly from previous years.

According to him, before 2024, the Bank’s accounts were prepared using a framework that reflected these categories of gains and losses directly in the Profit and Loss account, in line with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

He argued that changes introduced under the current administration moved some losses into Other Comprehensive Income, instead of the Profit and Loss account, thereby creating what he described as an artificial distinction between the two categories.

“This also means that the performance of the P&L in 2024 and 2025 cannot be compared to the periods prior to 2024 unless and until one combines the P&L and OCI,” he argued.

The former Information Minister also accused Mr Gyamfi of inconsistency, citing earlier public comments in which the GoldBod CEO allegedly dismissed claims about losses at the Bank of Ghana.

According to Mr Oppong Nkrumah, Mr Gyamfi had previously accused critics of “dreaming or hallucinating” when concerns were raised about the financial state of the central bank, but was now acknowledging parts of the losses contained in the audited accounts.

He also accused Mr Gyamfi of changing his position regarding the credibility of KPMG, noting that the NDC communicator had criticised a KPMG report in 2018 as “bogus, one-sided and inconclusive” but was now relying on the same firm’s credibility to defend the Bank of Ghana’s accounts.

Sammy Gyamfi’s reaction

In a separate and strongly worded statement directed at Mr Oppong Nkrumah, Mr Gyamfi however, rejected claims that the Minority MP was merely discussing “total losses” rather than “operating losses.”

According to him, Mr Oppong Nkrumah’s original press conference specifically described the GH¢34.9 billion figure as the “true operating loss” of the Bank of Ghana.

“My attention has just been drawn to a Facebook post of yours which purports to respond to my submission on yesterday’s edition of the Key Points show on TV3 Ghana about your deceptive analysis of the 2025 audited financials of the Bank of Ghana,” Mr Gyamfi wrote.

“But Kojo, was this the claim you made at your press conference of Sunday, 3rd May 2026? The answer is a big fat NO.”

Mr Gyamfi accused the former Information Minister of “shifting the goalpost” after his earlier claims came under scrutiny.

“Your attempt to justify the falsehoods you peddled about the 2025 audited financial statements of the BoG by shifting the goalpost is rather exposing your dishonesty,” he wrote.

The GoldBod CEO insisted that Mr Oppong Nkrumah had clearly referred to the GH¢34.9 billion figure as “operating loss” and not “total loss,” arguing that the Minority MP was now attempting to alter his language after criticism.

He quoted portions of Mr Oppong Nkrumah’s earlier press statement in which the Minority had claimed that the “true operating loss” of the Bank stood at GH¢34.9 billion and that the losses could rise to GH¢44 billion after adjustments.

“Kojo, in your press statement of Sunday, 3rd May 2026, you stated that the ‘TRUE OPERATING LOSS’ of the BoG for 2025 was 34.9 billion cedis. Nowhere in your press statement did you say that ‘total loss’ of the BoG for 2025 was 34.9 billion cedis as you are suggesting now,” he stated.

Mr Gyamfi maintained that the audited Profit and Loss statement remains the correct basis for assessing the financial condition of the Bank of Ghana.

“I maintain that the operating loss recorded in the audited financials of the BoG for the year 2025 is GHS15.6 billion. And that the audited income statement (P&L) is what is relevant in assessing the financial health of the Bank, and not the Other Comprehensive Income statement,” he argued.

Alleged GOLDBOD losses

The growing confrontation has also spilled into Parliament, where the Minority has accused the Majority Caucus of blocking attempts to investigate alleged gold transaction losses involving billions of cedis.

Mr Oppong Nkrumah claimed that parliamentary efforts to probe the matter had repeatedly been frustrated since March 2026 and challenged Mr Gyamfi to support a formal parliamentary inquiry if he was confident in his position.

“You claim to welcome a probe, yet you have been evading a Parliamentary investigation into the gold losses of billions of cedis since March 27th,” he wrote.

“Your lies will be exposed if you are brave enough to appear under oath in a Parliamentary inquiry where documents will be presented and scrutinised.”

The Ofoase-Ayirebi MP further argued that responsibility for explaining the Bank of Ghana’s financial statements properly lies with Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson, rather than political communicators or the GoldBod CEO.

“The Bank of Ghana’s 2025 accounts are not the responsibility of GoldBod’s CEO or the NDC’s National Communications Officer. They belong to the Minister for Finance, who must present them to Parliament,” he stated.

He subsequently challenged Mr Gyamfi to stop responding through social media and instead submit himself to parliamentary scrutiny under oath.

“If you are as confident of your case as your posts suggest, be the loudest voice in your party today demanding that the inquiry I initiated on March 27th be allowed to proceed,” he added.

While the NDC insists that the Minority is deliberately distorting financial reporting standards for political advantage, the NPP maintains that government officials are attempting to downplay the full extent of the Bank of Ghana’s financial deterioration.

 

 

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