Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has disclosed that the government is targeting the purchase of at least $20 billion worth of gold this year as part of a strategy to help the Bank of Ghana build its foreign exchange reserves.
Speaking at the Ghana-Uk Investment Summit, Dr. Forson said the initiative will focus on buying gold from Small-scale and Large-Scale miners, with the commodity to be refined locally before added to the country’s reserves or sold on the international market.
According to him, President Mahama’s government deliberately established the Ghana Gold Board to take control of gold exports and curb smuggling in the gold value chain.
‘’ We needed to ensure that we capture our Gold to control the gold export and so we introduced what is called the GoldBod and the GoldBod was to ensure that gold that was hitherto leaving the country through smuggling and the country was not benefitting from the value chain is actually stopped.
And so what we did was the introduction of the GoldBod alone, one calendar year we were able to buy gold up to $14 billion and that 14 billion assisted the Central Bank to be able to build reserves.
Today, the Central Bank has a very healthy reserve position and this year we expect to buy gold at least 20 billion.’’ He explained
Ghana is Africa’s largest gold producer. However, most of the commodities have historically been exported in raw form, limiting the country’s share of the value chain.
GoldBod has in recent years purchased and aggregated gold to accumulate reserves and the country’s $20 billion target would represent a significant scale-up of that effort.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, Esq. has already revealed that government, through the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Programme (GANRAP), is targeting the purchase of three tonnes of gold every week in a move expected to generate over $400 million weekly for Ghana’s economy through 2028.
According to him, the programme seeks to purchase 2.45 tonnes of gold weekly from the artisanal and small-scale mining sector, while large-scale mining companies are expected to contribute an additional 0.55 tonnes per week.
Speaking on the objectives of GANRAP, the GoldBod CEO explained that the initiative forms part of the President Mahama administration’s broader economic reset agenda aimed at strengthening Ghana’s foreign reserves, stabilizing the cedi, and protecting the economy against future external shocks.
Mr. Gyamfi explained that after the establishment of GoldBod in April 2025, the institution initially continued the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme while implementing reforms, restructuring operations, and building new systems within the gold trading sector.
However, he noted that government has now transitioned fully into GANRAP, which has received approval from Cabinet and Parliament, with a stronger focus on efficiency and cost reduction.
According to him, one of the major achievements under the new programme has been a significant reduction in the cost of gold reserve accumulation. He disclosed that while the previous Domestic Gold Purchase Programme operated at a cost of about 16 percent, GANRAP has reduced that figure to 7.25 percent, with projections to reduce it further to 5 percent next year and eventually 3 percent.
