Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea publishes audited 2023 IFRS accounts with clean opinion and gold deposit uncertainty

The Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea has published KPMG’s contractual auditor report and IFRS financial statements for the year ended Dec. 31, 2023. KPMG issued an unmodified opinion that the statements fairly present the central bank’s financial position, financial performance and cash flows under International Financial Reporting Standards, while drawing attention, without qualifying the opinion, to note 5.1 on uncertainty surrounding monetary gold and silver held with a gold-processing and custody counterparty. The accounts, approved by the governor on March 6, 2026 on the basis of information available at that date, report total assets of GNF 39,097,700 million and equity of GNF 1,419,014 million, compared with GNF 32,391,656 million and GNF 2,026,847 million a year earlier. The central bank recorded a net loss of GNF 747,593 million and a total comprehensive loss of GNF 607,832 million. Foreign currency cash and cash equivalents fell to GNF 9,601,530 million from GNF 14,931,787 million, while claims on the Guinean Treasury increased to GNF 22,588,047 million from GNF 12,979,468 million after a July 2023 securitization of Treasury-related claims. The notes to the accounts state that the counterparty failed to return deposited refined gold in early January 2022, that arbitration before the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris resulted in an award in the bank’s favor in September 2024, and that recovery procedures are ongoing. They also state that a provision of GNF 888.53 billion, equal to 50% of the fair value of the gold and silver deposit, was maintained at the 2023 year-end as the bank’s best estimate of irrecoverability risk.