GoldBod CEO: DGPP Losses Reflect Policy Cost of Ghana’s Economic Stabilisation

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), Sammy Gyamfi, has said reported losses incurred by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP) in 2025 should be understood within the broader economic objectives for which the programme was established, rather than interpreted as evidence of financial mismanagement or loss of state funds.

Speaking at the Government Accountability Series at the Jubilee House, Mr. Gyamfi said the DGPP was deliberately designed as a foreign exchange mobilisation and economic stabilisation intervention rather than a profit-making programme.

He explained that the decision to purchase artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) gold at spot prices was a policy choice intended to strengthen Ghana’s foreign exchange position and support macroeconomic stability.

“Nobody buys gold at spot prices and yet seeks profit. This is why the DGPP never made profit since its inception in 2021. The focus of the then government and the BoG had always been the economic benefit of the programme,” he stated.

Mr. Gyamfi stressed that GoldBod’s defence of its financial performance for 2025 should not be interpreted as an attempt to attribute the reported DGPP losses to the Bank of Ghana.

He maintained that the reported losses were largely exchange-rate valuation or translational effects, rather than evidence of criminality or misappropriation of state resources.

According to the GoldBod CEO, the economic rationale behind the programme was reflected in the significant improvement in Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves and broader macroeconomic indicators following its expansion.

“The IMF itself has attributed the reported DGPP losses of US$1.7 billion to the ‘scaling up’ of the DGPP and not mismanagement,” Mr. Gyamfi said.

He noted that the expansion of the programme contributed significantly to the increase in Ghana’s foreign reserves from US$8.9 billion in 2024 to about US$13 billion in 2025, while also supporting a 41 percent appreciation of the Ghana cedi and a substantial reduction in inflation from 23.8 percent to below 5 percent during the year.

Mr. Gyamfi argued that these outcomes demonstrate that the financial cost reflected in the DGPP accounts must be assessed alongside the wider economic benefits delivered by the programme.

He said the debate should therefore focus not only on the reported losses, but also on the foreign exchange accumulation, currency stability, declining inflation and broader macroeconomic resilience achieved through the intervention.