Former Minister for Power, Dr Kwabena Donkor, has questioned who should bear the cost arising from the domestic gold purchase programme, despite benefits like a strengthened national currency and robust foreign exchange reserves.
The comments come amid public debate over the cost of the domestic gold purchase programme. Ghana’s domestic gold purchase programme was initiated by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in 2021 to build international foreign exchange reserves and stabilize the cedi by buying locally produced gold. The operations were later transitioned to the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod).
The IMF, in its fifth review, cited a provisional $214 million quasi-fiscal cost for the 2025 financial year.
However, the Chief Executive Officer of the GoldBod, Sammy Gyamfi, has strongly rejected claims that the state-owned gold-buying institution incurred losses in 2025.
Mr Gyamfi quoted from the audited Annual Report and Financial Statements of GoldBod for the year ended December 31, 2025, prepared and published by the Auditor-General of Ghana, that GoldBod recorded an operational surplus of GH¢907 million and an overall surplus of GH¢5.4 billion.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana has ended its prefinancing of GoldBod’s purchases, effective July 1, 2026, under the new Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Programme (GANRAP).
Reacting to the raging debate, Dr Donkor said that although GoldBod acts as a purchasing agent for the Bank of Ghana, disequilibrium is created between the purchase price and the selling price.
According to him, “there is legitimately a structural problem in domestic gold purchase, especially from small-scale miners.”
According to Dr Donkor, “as the cedi strengthens against the dollar, disequilibrium is established between the purchase price (p) and the selling price (s).”
The former minister of Power stressed that, “the real question is who bears this arbitrage cost? BoG or Goldbod? Meanwhile, Goldbod acts as a purchasing Agent for BoG!”
He has proposed that the government consider a dedicated line item in the national budget to absorb the cost.
“Can the national budget have a line item that takes this legitimate cost from both institutions?” Dr Donkor asked.
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