The Financial institution of Ghana (BoG) has for the primary time made public the precise supply of many of the accounting prices incurred by its Home Gold Buy Program (DGPP), revealing that the overwhelming majority of what critics name this system’s “losses” stem from a single trade charge accounting follow, relatively than operational inefficiencies or monetary mismanagement.
Talking on TV3’s Key Factors program on Saturday, Could 2, 2026, the Financial institution of Ghana’s Director of Monetary Markets, Gershon Kudjo Agbresorwu, admitted that roughly 83 per cent of the full price of the DGPP is attributable to the distinction between the Overseas Trade Bureau’s trade charge used to pay miners and the Financial institution of Ghana’s official trade charge used to report transactions on its books. “About 83% of the price was resulting from conversion from the overseas trade bureau charge to the central financial institution’s official charge,” he mentioned.
This price construction mechanism is constructed into this system design. When the Financial institution purchases gold from small-scale and artisanal miners, funds are made in Cedis on the prevailing overseas trade charge, which trades at a premium to the central financial institution’s official charge. The transaction is then recorded on the central financial institution’s stability sheet on the official charge. Even when no funds go away the reserve system, the unfold between these two numbers is recorded because the distinction in accounting prices on the time of every buy.
Agbledzorwu acknowledged that the design was intentional relatively than unintended. Overseas trade charges are used as a coverage incentive to encourage miners to route gold via the formal home market relatively than promoting it to unauthorized overseas patrons or smuggling networks. The accounting price is subsequently a measurable worth for sustaining that incentive construction and sustaining artisanal gold manufacturing inside a regulated provide chain.
The financial institution additional revealed that the fast appreciation of the cedi in 2025 (roughly 41% in opposition to the US greenback) considerably amplified this price. Because the forex strengthened, the divergence between the trade charge and the official charge widened, and the recorded price differential widened past the extent anticipated by this system’s authentic design. This transfer largely explains the bounce in DGPP prices from GH¢5.66 billion in 2024 to GH¢9.05 billion in 2025.
This disclosure provides additional technical readability to this debate, which has obtained appreciable public and political consideration because the World Financial institution launched its 2025 audited monetary statements on April 30, 2026. As NewsGhana beforehand reported, the central financial institution recorded a web lack of GH¢15.63 billion in 2025, with DGPP prices being the second-largest single contributor after open market operations prices. Officers have constantly maintained that each numbers symbolize deliberate coverage spending, not a failure of system administration.
An impartial evaluation by College of Ghana economists cited by Metropolis Information confirms that the divergence between the FX Division and the official low cost charge is a key structural think about this system’s accounting prices, and factors out that, barring one other appreciation shock, a correction to the cedi in 2026 ought to ease the divergence and scale back future price burdens.
