10 Must-Know from “All That Glitters: Ghana - Can Mahama Escape the ‘Golden Straitjacket’?” by Bright Simons

The NDC Inherits a Legacy of Secrecy: The new government takes over gold programmes like DGPP and G4O, which have been criticised for opacity and poor accountability.
Gold-for-Oil and DGPP Lack Clarity: Both flagship programmes: Domestic Gold Purchasing Programme and Gold-for-Oil, have murky operational details, with little public data on procurement or performance.
Production Data Doesn’t Match BoG Claims: BoG claims it bought $9bn worth of gold since 2021, but official gold production has actually declined, raising serious credibility questions.

Aggregator Monopoly Raises Eyebrows: Asanska, a relatively obscure company, was made the sole aggregator without a competitive process, despite over 190 licensed gold exporters in Ghana.
Refining Gold, But Not the Process: Ghana’s official gold refinery lacks international LBMA accreditation. Its ownership structure is unclear, and attempts to trace supposed investors have failed.
Gold-for-Oil Has No Paper Trail: About $1.2bn worth of fuel was imported via the G4O scheme, yet no procurement details, supplier identities or pricing benchmarks have been published.
Potential Risks to National Reserves: Without verified international certification, Ghana’s gold reserves could be discounted or untradeable, jeopardising the nation’s financial credibility.
New Gov’t, Same Shadows?: Despite campaign promises, the new government has not clarified if it will overhaul the schemes or continue with the same secretive practices.
GoldBod Could Worsen the Problem: The newly created GoldBod risks becoming an unaccountable behemoth, mirroring and magnifying the flaws of Ghana’s Cocobod monopoly.
Call for Radical Transparency: Bright Simons insists that real reform must start with full public disclosure of contracts, partners, and processes, anything less is business as usual.

So what?

Bright Simons makes it clear that if Mahama’s government truly wants to escape the “golden straitjacket,” it must swap secrecy for radical transparency. Anything less risks deepening public mistrust and entrenching the very failures it once criticized.