Ghana's Central Bank Suffers $1.9 Billion Loss on Gold Purchases

Ghana's central bank, the Bank of Ghana, took on significant losses in 2025 due to its gold purchasing program. The program, known as GoldBod, aimed to buy gold from small-scale and artisanal miners using local currency and hold it to strengthen the country's foreign-exchange reserves.

The plan helped raise the country's gross international reserves by $3.9 billion in 2025, bringing them to $11.9 billion at year-end. However, the buying also came with significant costs. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that the central bank lost 22 billion cedis, equivalent to $1.9 billion, during the year.

The losses were due to service fees, gold-assay charges, and trading margins. Gold-assay charges are fees for testing a batch of gold's purity, while trading margins refer to the gap between buying and selling prices. The IMF noted that these costs pushed the central bank's negative equity to 6.7% of GDP.

The program did not stay with the central bank for long. In July, GoldBod formally took over responsibility, pulling the Bank of Ghana out of what the IMF calls a 'quasi-fiscal activity.' The government and GoldBod now carry all operating expenses, which will be explicitly set out in the national budget.