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The Minority in Parliament has raised serious concerns over the country’s gold aggregation arrangements, alleging that a single private company, Bawa-Rock Limited, owned by Alhaji Rashid Bawa, has exclusively purchased gold worth more than US$10 billion on behalf of GoldBod and the Bank of Ghana over the past nine months.
According to the Minority, Bawa-Rock Ltd is purportedly the only company licensed to aggregate and purchase all artisanal gold supplied to GoldBod nationwide.
The Minority argues that this situation raises troubling questions about transparency, competition, and governance in Ghana’s gold sector.
In a statement circulated publicly, the Minority said it has formally posed seven critical questions to the authorities, none of which, it claims, has been adequately answered.
These include how Bawa-Rock Ltd became the sole aggregator licensed by GoldBod to buy artisanal gold directly from suppliers across the country, why a de facto monopoly was created in an industry where competition is meant to ensure fair pricing and prevent rent-seeking, and who ultimately benefits from what it describes as a deliberate and needless monopoly.
The Minority is also demanding clarity on who selected Bawa-Rock Ltd for this role, the criteria used in making that selection, and the identity of the company’s beneficial owners. Further, it questions why every miner, dealer, landowner, and small-scale producer must pass through a single private entity before gold reaches GoldBod and, for reserve purposes, the Bank of Ghana.
The Minority claims that Bawa-Rock Ltd operates from a headquarters located around Roman Ridge in Accra and alleges that the premises are under heavy military guard. No official explanation has been provided for the reported security presence.
In addition, unconfirmed reports circulating in the public domain suggest that the company’s owner may be related to the President. These claims have not been verified, and government officials have so far declined to comment on them.
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