{"id":109707,"date":"2026-01-03T12:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=109707"},"modified":"2026-01-03T12:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:44:07","slug":"gold-trading-losses-raise-transparency-and-competition-concerns-bright-simons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=109707","title":{"rendered":"Gold trading losses raise transparency and competition concerns \u2013 Bright Simons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 41 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Honorary Vice President of IMANI-Africa, Bright Simons, has raised concerns over transparency, competition, and financing structures within Ghana\u2019s gold trading and aggregation system, warning that the current setup may disadvantage private sector participants.<\/p>\n

Speaking on JoyNews\u2019 <\/strong>Newsfile<\/em> on Saturday, January 3, Mr. Simons said once the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified losses in the Gold-for-Reserves programme as trading losses, responsibility could not be attributed to only one side of the transaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf one institution is responsible for buying and another for selling, then responsibility is shared. At the very least, this is a joint effort,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n

He questioned whether pricing mechanisms on both the buying and selling sides, particularly discounts and premiums offered by off-takers, were competitive and transparent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way to know whether off-taker pricing is competitive is through an open and transparent bidding platform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to him, feedback from self-financed gold aggregators suggests they are struggling to compete under the current system, especially against an aggregator that enjoys financing advantages.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have one aggregator receiving funding from the Bank of Ghana and another sourcing funds commercially from banks. One pays interest, the other does not. Who do you think will win?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

He dismissed claims that government funding is interest-free, insisting that such financing still carries economic cost, even if not explicitly priced.<\/p>\n

Mr Simons also raised concerns about the aggregator licensing process, describing it as opaque and lacking transparency.<\/p>\n

\u201cApplicants are told that only one entity qualifies, but there is no publicly known evaluation mechanism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He compared the situation to the telecoms sector, where the National Communications Authority (NCA) uses auctions to allocate scarce resources, allowing for greater transparency and public confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, the public has no visibility. We are simply told who has been selected, without knowing the criteria or process,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He called for greater openness, competitive bidding, and clearer rules, warning that without reform, the system risks inefficiency and public mistrust.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GoldHonorary Vice President of IMANI-Africa, Bright Simons, has raised concerns over transparency, competition, and financing structures within Ghana\u2019s gold trading and aggregation system, warning that the current setup may disadvantage private sector participants.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2840,14855,14856,1883,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bright-simons","category-gold-trading","category-gold-for-reserves-programme","category-national","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109707\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}