{"id":387314,"date":"2026-01-04T09:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T09:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/387314\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T09:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T09:05:08","slug":"gold-for-reserves-distorts-competition-favours-bawa-rock-bright-simons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/387314\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold for Reserves distorts competition, favours Bawa Rock \u2013 Bright Simons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bright <\/a>Bright Simons is the Vice President of IMANI Africa<\/p>\n

Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has raised concerns that the structure of the Gold for Reserves programme is creating an uneven playing field that disadvantages private sector participants.<\/p>\n

Speaking on JoyNews\u2019 Newsfile on Saturday, January 3, 2026, Simons said independent, self-financed gold aggregators are struggling to compete with the state-designated apex aggregator, Bawa Rock Limited.<\/p>\n

He attributed the challenge to what he described as a major financial imbalance. According to him, Bawa Rock receives interest-free funding from the Bank of Ghana, while private aggregators depend on commercial bank loans that attract market interest rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aggregator gets money from the Bank of Ghana. Is it interest-free? Yes, it\u2019s interest-free. The self-financed aggregator gets money from their own banks. Is that interest-free? We know it\u2019s not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Kojo Oppong Nkrumah chickened out in defending claims against Goldbod\u2019 \u2013 Dzifa Gunu<\/a><\/p>\n

Simons questioned how private players could compete under such conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have someone that is sourcing money commercially competing with someone who is getting money from the government. Who will win?\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that this advantage enables Bawa Rock to operate at lower costs and outcompete private aggregators when buying gold from small-scale miners and licensed buyers.<\/p>\n

Simons further noted that private aggregators are unhappy that Bawa Rock is operating more as a direct competitor rather than a coordinating apex body.<\/p>\n

Even NPP members are quietly enjoying Mahama\u2019s governance \u2013 Edudzi Tameklo<\/a><\/p>\n

While there is no legal requirement for Bawa Rock to purchase gold from smaller aggregators, he said its current approach is undermining their role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are telling us that right now Bawa Rock, beyond the fact that it sits at the apex, is competing with the self-financed aggregators. It\u2019s not really buying from them,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

He also expressed concern about a lack of transparency in related processes, particularly the formation of \u2018aggregator alliances\u2019.<\/p>\n

Simons cited an instance where several applications were submitted but only one was declared eligible, without clear public criteria.<\/p>\n

According to him, the absence of transparency could erode confidence in the programme and raise concerns about fairness and market efficiency.<\/p>\n

MRA\/BAI<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, watch President John Dramani Mahama\u2019s 2026 full New Year Message below:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, watch as Acting Defence Minister Ato Forson inaugurates 9-Member Ministerial Advisory Board<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bright Simons is the Vice President of IMANI Africa Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has raised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-387314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}