Ghana: Central bank suffers $1.7 billion in losses on gold purchases in 2025

Ghana, the continent's top gold producer, has relied for several years on its gold resource to stabilize the cedi and rebuild its foreign exchange reserves, following a severe debt crisis that led to an IMF support program. It is in this context that the Bank of Ghana launched the "Domestic Gold Purchase" program, operated via the GoldBod agency. According to IMF Country Report No. 26/213, published on August 4, a reference document for the 2026 Article IV consultation, the central bank's losses on these purchases reach $1.7 billion for the year 2025 alone, far exceeding the $214 million initially reported—a figure the Fund now describes as a major underestimate. The challenge is twofold: to preserve the credibility of Ghana's monetary policy as the country barely emerges from a sovereign debt restructuring, and to reassure the IMF regarding fiscal sustainability. For taxpayers, these losses represent an indirect cost potentially passed on to public finances. The report does not detail the mechanisms explaining such a discrepancy, even though gold prices generally rose in 2025, leaving the question open: premiums paid to producers, financing costs, or hedging choices could be at fault, without official confirmation. This opacity raises questions about GoldBod's governance and the reliability of data transmitted to international institutions.