Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Johnson Asiama has revealed that the Gold for Oil programme has been shut down due to billions of losses made over the years.
According to him, there is an ongoing audit into both the Gold for Oil and the Gold for Reserves programmes to determine the way forward concerning both initiatives.
He made the statement when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee sitting on Monday, January 12, 2026.
“The Gold for Oil programme since May last year, we had to shut that down. An external audit is underway currently and that entire programme is being audited. When the audit is complete, we are happy to share audit findings with you.
“Then the Gold for Reserves, G4R, there is an external audit that the Bank of Ghana Board has authorized. Both from when it started until the end of 2024 and then also how it operated during 2025.
“So, these audit reports, when ready, we are happy to discuss with your committee,” he told the Committee.
He further suggested that there must be a relevant reform of the Gold for Oil and Gold for Reserves programmes to support the country’s reserves.
“I must say that these are programmes that were introduced to address specific national challenges and we believe that going forward what we have to do is to reform them to reduce the cost further to treat them as quasi-fiscal interventions and that should support our reserves build-up going forward,” he added.
The Governor also disclosed some losses incurred by the Gold for Oil and Gold for Reserves programmes from 2022 to 2024.
“The net losses for Gold for Oil and also the net losses for Gold for Reserves. In 2022, the net losses for Gold for Oil was about GHC74.44 million. We did not have a net loss for Gold for Reserve in 2022.
“Then in 2023, the net loss for the Gold for Oil was GHC317.69 million and on the other hand the net losses for the Gold for Reserves was GHC1.54 billion. Then in 2024, the net loss for the Gold for Oil was GHC1.8 billion, on the other hand, the net loss for the Gold for Reserves in 2024 was GHC3.8 billion,” he stated.
The BoG Governor indicated that 2025 figures are pending external audit confirmation and the BoG will publish its financials by March this year.
