The performance of GoldBod should not be judged solely through the narrow lens of textbook profit-and-loss economics. Its operational design must go beyond abstract economic models that assume perfect markets, rational actors, minimal state intervention, and full regulatory compliance.
In Ghana’s gold sector, these assumptions simply do not hold.
Gold production and trade are characterised by widespread informality, entrenched smuggling networks, weak traceability systems, asymmetric information between producers and buyers, selective enforcement of regulations, and the systematic externalisation of environmental and social costs to the public.
Cross-border illicit trade further distorts domestic pricing, undermines lawful market channels, and renders price signals unreliable. Under such structural conditions, market outcomes do not reflect efficiency, fairness, or the national interest; failures are systemic, persistent, and self-reinforcing.
In this context, coordinated state intervention through an institution such as GoldBod is not a distortion of an otherwise efficient market. It is a necessary #corrective #mechanism aimed at restoring transparency, preserving national values, safeguarding public resources, and realigning the gold economy with constitutional and developmental objectives.
The limitation of textbook economics becomes clearer when viewed through a practical lens. If a household’s only asset is a house valued at US$1 million, and a medical emergency requires US$100,000 to save the life of a loved one, strict adherence to theoretical market value would suggest rejecting any offer below the house’s “true” price.
Yet, the household would rationally accept a much lower offer if that were the only way to preserve life. In such situations, #human #value #takes #precedence #over #theoretical #efficiency.
Similarly, in Ghana’s gold economy, public interest cannot be subordinated to market neutrality where market conditions are fundamentally broken.
Strong state coordination is therefore justified, not as an ideological preference, but as a practical response to structural distortions. Moreover, Ghana’s mineral resources, particularly gold, are not ordinary commodities.
They are strategic national assets directly linked to foreign exchange stability, fiscal revenues, environmental sustainability, and national security.
GoldBod must therefore be assessed primarily on its ability to retain national value and protect long-term #public #interest, rather than on narrow measures of short-term financial profitability or theoretical market efficiency.
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