By: Magdalene Andoh
President John Dramani Mahama has credited the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) as the key driver behind Ghana’s significant boost in international reserves, now standing at $13.8 billion, covering 5.7 months of imports.
According to him, GoldBod’s establishment has led to a surge in gold exports, with 103 tonnes exported in 10 months, generating over $10 billion in forex inflows.
This move aims to strengthen Ghana’s economic stability and assert sovereignty over its natural resources.
Addressing Parliament in his State of the Nation’s address, president Mahama said, formalizing gold export has reduced smuggling, increase recorded export in the Artisanal Small-scale mining sector from 66.3 tonnes by the end of 2024.
” Mr. Speaker, our reserves currently stands at US$13.8 billion dollars from US$8.9 billion by the end of 2024. This covers 5.7 months of import cover. A key driver of this development has been the establishment of the Ghana Gold Board,” he explained.
The president stated that, with global gold prices projected to soar in the next three years, the country cannot but build stronger reserve buffers to contribute to currency stabilization, inflation, boosting investor confidence and supporting household incomes.
” Mr. Speaker, when the cedi stabilizes, imported inflation falls, businesses can plan better and household income will increase.
Mr. Speaker,as global uncertainties grows, it is necessary for us to reduce our country’s exposure to external shocks, break the cycle of economic downturn and safeguard our microeconomic stability,” he stated.
Mr. Mahama in his statement endorsed the Finance minister’s introduction of the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation, a policy targeted at leveraging the country’s gold to strengthen foreign exchange reserves and promote economic stability.
The move is expected to boost Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves, which have already shown significant improvement.
DR. Forson has described the initiative as historic and strategy shift towards a structured, gold-backed and reform-driven accumulation framework.
” Gold as a strategic anchor central to the policy is a deliberate gold-backed reserve accumulation strategy anchored on the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 ( Act 1140), which mandates the Ghana Gold Board to generate foreign exchange and support gold reserve accumulation by the Bank of Ghana,’ he explained.
To make it achievable, the Finance minister revealed that government has set an operational weekly gold purchase target of approximately 3.02 tonnes through the acquisition of at least 2.45 tonnes from Artisanal Small-scale Mining (ASM) sector and a minimum of 0.57 tonnes from the Large-Scale mining sector.
