In a keynote speech, the Bank of Ghana’s First Deputy Governor, Dr Zakari Mumuni, set out how the central bank has been leveraging commodities, particularly gold, to strengthen foreign exchange buffers and support macroeconomic stabilisation, citing the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP), the Gold for Oil (G4O) initiative and the Ghana Gold Coin (GGC). The DGPP, launched in June 2021, aimed to double gold reserves within five years from 8.74 tonnes, diversify the foreign exchange reserve portfolio and use gold holdings to raise cheaper short-term, collateralised financing. As of end-June 2025, the Bank had purchased 145.95 tonnes of gold, sold 86.77 tonnes for FX to bolster reserves and increased its physical gold holdings to 32.99 tonnes. Building on the DGPP framework, the G4O initiative introduced in 2022 used 27.63 tonnes of gold to settle imports of 1.95 million metric tons of petroleum products, intended to ease FX pressures and help moderate ex-pump fuel price increases that had reached 230% in one year. The GGC was presented as an investment-grade, high-purity coin intended to provide a store of value and inflation hedge, offer an alternative investment asset class and help manage excess liquidity, while noting related opportunities and risks for market participants including commodity-backed financing, structured products and commodity price and environmental and social risk factors.
Bank of Ghana 2025-08-06
Bank of Ghana reports 145.95 tonnes bought under its Domestic Gold Purchase Programme and outlines Gold for Oil and Ghana Gold Coin initiatives
In a keynote speech, the Bank of Ghana's First Deputy Governor, Dr. Zakari Mumuni, highlighted the central bank's use of commodities, particularly gold, to bolster foreign exchange reserves and support macroeconomic stability. Initiatives like the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP) and Gold for Oil (G4O) have been instrumental, with the DGPP increasing gold reserves and the G4O using gold to settle petroleum imports. The Ghana Gold Coin (GGC) was introduced as an investment-grade asset to manage liquidity and hedge against inflation.