The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), set up to safeguard the country’s mineral royalties, is under intense scrutiny after a confidential audit report flagged potential financial losses running into hundreds of millions of cedis and detailed lavish foreign travel by its former board and management.
A confidential Ghana Audit Service review of MIIF’s 2024 financial statements, intercepted by JoyNews, concludes that the fund has effectively lost more than GHC708 million in a complex gold-trading arrangement with Goldridge Refinery Limited, even as the institution publicly touts record profits and a “clean bill of health” from auditors.
At the heart of the controversy is MIIF’s gold-for-forex deal with Goldridge, a company linked to businessman Nana Yaw “Dr Sledge” Duodu. According to the confidential audit, MIIF entered a five-year, US$30 million investment with Goldridge in 2023, structured to yield 15% annual interest. A parallel arrangement with the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD) meant MIIF advanced cedis to Goldridge, which in turn was to supply dollars to support petroleum imports.
Auditors found that Goldridge failed to deliver the promised dollars, creating a hole in the programme’s finances. While Goldridge and some MIIF officials blamed foreign-exchange volatility, the audit instead points to weak oversight, including management’s failure to enforce a key clause requiring an independent auditor to review the trades quarterly. The report warns that MIIF risks losing the entire US$30 million principal along with about US$2.4 million in accrued interest, and directs the fund to recover a total of US$40.3 million from Goldridge.
The same report, as summarised in JoyNews’ account, recommends that if recovery fails, former board chair Prof Douglas Boateng, former Deputy Finance Minister Dr Alex Ampaabeng, then-CEO Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng and Chief Investment Officer Bubune Sorkpor could be held personally liable. The auditors also noted that, contrary to assurances from the former CEO that losses were being clawed back, there was no documentary evidence of recovery efforts.
To plug the immediate gap in the gold-for-forex chain, the Finance Ministry is said to have approved an additional US$40 million, of which US$26.4 million went to CBOD. Fidelity Bank, which pre-financed some of the trades in cedis on the understanding that it would be repaid in dollars, confirmed the arrangement to auditors and indicated that the outstanding amounts were settled by December 2024. But the audit still characterises MIIF’s exposure on the Goldridge leg of the programme as a major risk to public funds.
Questions over US$94m “missing” gold cash and other investments
The confidential audit is only the latest in a string of reports accusing MIIF of questionable deals and opaque accounting around its gold trade and investment portfolio.
Earlier in 2025, The Herald newspaper, in a story later carried by outlets such as XYZ Broadcasting, reported that US$94 million was allocated for a separate gold trade transaction with Goldridge. Journalists, citing unnamed insiders, alleged that neither the gold nor the cash had been fully accounted for months after the deal, and linked senior MIIF officials, including the former CEO and legal officers, to the transaction.
That reporting also claimed that MIIF’s broader Commodities Trade Programme, launched in 2023, pumped about GHC2.2 billion into gold aggregators in ways critics say breached the fund’s own governing law and exposed the state to “massive” losses. Additional spending highlighted in the same accounts includes roughly GHC240 million on AstroTurf pitches and a mining museum, and about GHC84.8 million on equipment for a Small-Scale Mining Incubation Project, with journalists questioning whether the equipment was ever procured or properly deployed.
Separately, the Herald has also focused attention on MIIF’s equity bets, reporting that around GHC1.4 billion has gone into stakes in firms such as Asante Gold Corporation, ElectroChem Ghana, Injaro Venture Capital and Atlantic Lithium, with concerns raised about the pace and transparency of returns to the fund. In one piece, the paper alleged that Asante Gold, linked to the family of a former Akufo-Addo-era minister, owed MIIF more than US$30 million with no visible recovery strategy.
The Ghana Audit Service report that underpins the GHC708 million loss figure also shines a harsh light on how MIIF’s former board and senior executives travelled.
According to JoyNews’ account of the confidential findings, MIIF’s board and key managers spent more than GHC11 million on foreign trips in 2024 alone, without obtaining the mandatory approvals set out in a 2020 Ministry of Finance directive. That circular requires public officials to secure authorisation from the Chief of Staff or sector minister before travelling on official business. Auditors say there was no documentary evidence that MIIF complied with those rules.
The report also notes that over GHC2 million was paid in board and committee sitting allowances over two years, with roughly GHC1 million in 2023 and GHC1.2 million in 2024, at a time when many state entities were under pressure to cut costs. Former CEO Edward Koranteng, in his response to auditors, has maintained that the Chief of Staff’s office was aware of the trips, but the audit says no correspondence was produced to back that claim.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) has opened a broad investigation into MIIF’s operations, a move that underscores how seriously law-enforcement officials are treating the fund’s recent history.
A case profile on the OSP’s website confirms that investigators are examining payments and contracts across a wide range of MIIF projects, including engagements with Agyapa Royalties Limited, the Small-Scale Mining Incubation Programme, the Quarry Value Addition Programme, the lithium assets portfolio, Gold Asset 2 (the Enchi project), and deals with Asante Gold and ElectroChem.
The probe also covers spending on the board chair, the acquisition of land for a planned office complex, and the production and promotion of MIIF publications. The OSP says its inquiry, which currently targets two former and two current officials, is ongoing.
Pressure from civil society and opposition figures has grown in recent months for a full forensic audit and for the results of the 2024 audit to be made public, rather than circulating only as confidential reports shared with Parliament and selected agencies.
Amid the barrage of allegations, MIIF and its allies have been keen to present a very different picture: one of a high-performing sovereign minerals fund that, despite some forex losses, is delivering strong returns to the state.
In a story published on Wednesday, Asaase Radio, drawing directly on the 2024 audited financial statements, reported that MIIF booked net income of GHC1.964 billion in 2024, almost 300% higher than the previous year’s GHC455 million, and posted a profit of GHC1.904 billion. Total assets, the outlet said, climbed to about GHC11.2 billion, with a cost-to-income ratio of just 3%, placing MIIF among Ghana’s most profitable state-owned entities.
The same report quotes the Auditor-General describing MIIF as a “high-performing sovereign minerals fund” and notes that general and administrative expenses, including travel, were only GHC59.7 million, under 0.4% of revenue. Asaase also says the audited figures show travel by the board and management was authorised by the Chief of Staff and in line with board-approved mandates, explicitly rejecting media claims of unapproved trips. Board fees and allowances were put at roughly GHC800,000 in 2023 and GHC1.2 million in 2024, said to be set by the Finance Ministry under standard guidelines.
On the gold trade programme, MIIF’s defenders point to more than US$1 billion in receipts and about GHC36 million in profit for 2024 from a capital outlay of roughly US$30 million, arguing that, in aggregate, the scheme was profitable despite forex shocks. Asaase reports that Fidelity Bank’s own US$19 million foreign-exchange loss was resolved without touching MIIF deposits, and notes that under current CEO Justina Nelson, the fund filed a civil suit on 3 October 2025 against Goldridge and an insurance firm to recover about US$27 million.
In October, MIIF’s website highlighted a two-day training programme with the Internal Audit Agency on “effectively responding to audit queries.”
Nelson used the occasion to stress that “every cedi we manage” must meet high standards on behalf of Ghanaians and described accountability as the “currency of public trust,” a clear attempt to reassure stakeholders rattled by the succession of revelations.
MIIF was established under the Minerals Income Investment Act, 2018 (Act 978), as amended, to manage and invest the country’s mineral royalties and related revenues for long-term national benefit. The fund is also the state vehicle behind the controversial Agyapa Royalties Limited structure, which sought to leverage future gold royalties on international markets.
Public audits in earlier years had already raised concerns, including unpaid royalties of roughly GHC29.2 million from Chirano Gold Mines and smaller issues around undocumented payments from MIIF accounts, though these did not approach the scale of the current gold-trade controversy.
Now, with a confidential audit flagging potential losses of more than GHC708 million on the Goldridge deal, investigative pieces alleging as much as US$94 million in unaccounted gold-trade funds, and the OSP digging into a wide array of transactions, MIIF stands at a crossroads. Its financial statements show eye-catching profits and asset growth, but the unanswered questions around how it trades and invests the nation’s mineral wealth have turned the fund into a test case of whether Ghana can manage resource revenues with both ambition and restraint.
Until the full audit reports are released and the Special Prosecutor completes his work, Ghanaians are being asked to hold two competing narratives in their heads at once: a sovereign fund that has never been more profitable, and one that may have already burned through hundreds of millions of cedis it was created to protect.
