It has emerged that losses from the Bank of Ghana’s “Domestic Gold Purchase” programme, implemented through GoldBod, were far greater than initially disclosed.
According to IMF Country Report No. 26/213 on Ghana prepared as background documentation for the 2026 Article IV Consultation, the widely reported $214 million loss in 2025 represented only a small fraction of the total loss to the central bank.
The IMF report states that the significant scaling up of Domestic Gold Purchase operations in 2025 led to staggering losses of over US$1.7 billion, equivalent to 1.5% 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 noted.
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, exchange rate losses from the spread between the forex bureau rate paid to purchase gold and the cedi reference rate used for BoG accounting.
The report adds that survey data suggests Ghanaian ASGM 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 BoG balance sheet.
This implies transfers to recipients of FX at the reference rate either the BoG itself when accumulating reserves or recipients of BoG FX 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 BoG’s negative equity stood at 6.7 percent of GDP at the end of 2025.
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