Losses from the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, implemented through GoldBod, were far greater than initially disclosed, according to a new International Monetary Fund report.
The IMF Country Report No. 26/213 on Ghana, prepared as background documentation for the 2026 Article IV Consultation, states that the widely reported US$214 million loss in 2025 represented only a small fraction of the total loss to the central bank.
The report notes that the significant scaling up of Domestic Gold Purchase Programme operations in 2025 led to staggering losses of over US$1.7 billion, equivalent to 1.5 percent of GDP.
“Almost entirely related to G4R doré purchases; this amounted to a loss of 17 percent of the value of doré gold sold by the BoG,” the report stated.
The IMF said the losses accrued from a combination of factors, including service and assay fees paid to GoldBod, discounts on gold sold to off-takers and exporters, and exchange rate losses from the spread between the forex bureau rate paid to purchase gold and the cedi reference rate used for Bank of Ghana accounting.
The report adds that survey data suggests Ghanaian artisanal and small-scale gold mining prices are among the highest in the region.
The IMF further noted that while the accounting losses partly reflect valuation effects rather than economic costs, they still weaken the Bank of Ghana’s balance sheet. This implies transfers to recipients of foreign exchange at the reference rate, either the central bank itself when accumulating reserves or recipients of Bank of Ghana foreign exchange sales done at the reference rate.
Additional losses, the report noted, also accrued from Gold-for-Reserves-related claims on BOST that were partly written off in the year.
The report indicates the Bank of Ghana’s negative equity stood at 6.7 percent of GDP at the end of 2025.
