Paul Bleboo, Head of Gold Management at the Bank of Ghana, has explained the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme.
He recalled that the effect of Covid-19 and Russia Ukraine war had a negative impact on the economy, especially the Cedi.
But the management of the central bank at the time thought it prudent to leverage on Ghana’s gold to address the volatility.
Speaking on the KeyPoints on TV3 Saturday May 2, he said “the progamme was launched to address the effect of this macroeconomic volatility starting from 2021.
“We had to think outside the box, so we realised that gold is a reserve asset. So, what can we do with gold? What we can do is to leverage on these two things, use the local cedi to buy the gold, export the gold, refine it and add to our reserve.”
His comments come at a time the Bank of Ghana lost GH¢9.05 billion from its Domestic Gold Purchase Programme in 2025, as recorded in its 2025 Financial Report.
This is compared to a loss of GH¢5.66 billion in 2024. The loss included Net Loss on Gold for Reserves and Net Loss on Gold for Oil.
Under the Gold for Reserves Programme, the report pointed out that doré gold was acquired for foreign exchange generation purposes and was disposed of within the shortest possible time following purchase.
Additionally, the gold was not held for price appreciation or trading gains.
The report also stated that the financial outcome of the programme reflected prevailing market prices at the point of sale, based on sale proceeds net of directly attributable costs to sell, relative to the acquisition cost of gold disposed of, together with interest earned on gold deposits.
During the year, 2,914,305 fine ounces of doré gold were purchased (2024: 1,092,492 fine ounces) and 2,895,426 fine ounces were sold (2024: 1,076,125 fine ounces).
The closing doré gold holdings as of 31st December 2025 amounted to 9,283 fine ounces (2024: 7,311 fine ounces).
The report said the net result recognised for the year reflected the realised difference between net sale proceeds and the carrying amount of doré gold sold.
Interest income earned on gold deposits during the year amounted to GH¢0.047 billion.
For the gold for oil programme, the revenue from the sale of gold, net of costs to sell and cost of gold sold, amounted to a net loss of GH¢0.544 billion (2024: GH¢0.667 billion).
However, the oil trading activities generated a net gain of GH¢0.341 billion (2024: net loss of GH¢1.155 billion).
The report pointed out that the overall result of the programme reflected gold trading margins, oil trading margins and related operational costs incurred in the course of meeting foreign exchange and energy supply objectives. The programme was discontinued in March 2025.
