Amid the heated and polarized debate after the Bank of Ghana (BoG) released its 2025 financials, Banking and Financial Consultant Dr. Richmond Atuahene is arguing that the loss recorded was a necessary evil.
According to the audited statement, the Bank recorded an Open Market Operation (OMO) loss of about GHC16.7 billion and a gold trade loss of about GHC 9 billion.
While the OMO loss represents a significant increase from the GHC 8.60 billion loss in 2024, Dr. Atuahene maintains that this was a strategic opportunity cost paid to rescue the national economy from the brink of collapse.
Price Stability Over Profit
Dr. Atuahene argues that the public must look beyond the bottom line of the balance sheet to the central bank’s core mandate. He cites that under the Bank of Ghana Act 2002, the primary objective is to maintain price stability, not to generate profit.
He asserts that the recent losses have been instrumental in driving down runaway inflation, stabilizing the Cedi, and supporting a historic build-up of gold reserves.
Dr. Atuahene explains that if you compare the economic cost associated with the accounting losses in the books of the bank to the cost on the ordinary person, the action by the BoG was worth it.
In the absence of the BoG’s actions, Dr. Atuahene believes that the plight of the ordinary citizen would have worsened, driving inequality and decimating income levels.
The Lingering Shadow of Debt Restructuring
For Dr. Atuahene, the root of the BoG’s financial distress lies in the 2022/2023 Domestic Debt Exchange Program (DDEP). The central bank absorbed a massive 50% haircut on GHC 67.5 billion in government bonds.
This sovereign debt restructuring effectively wiped out a huge portion of the Bank’s asset base. The impact, he says, has been staggering. The BoG has lost an estimated GHC 52 billion in investment income over the past four years, including GHC 13 billion in 2025 alone.
With its primary income source crippled, the Bank was forced to rely on expensive interventions to manage the country’s money supply.
The High Cost of Disinflation
To regain control over the economy, the BoG adopted an aggressive monetary tightening stance. In 2025, the Bank doubled its spending on Open Market Operations (OMO), paying out GHC 16.7 billion to mop up excess liquidity from the financial system, up from GHC 8.6 billion the previous year.
However, Dr. Atuahene points to the “spectacular” results of this costly intervention. He points out that inflation plummeted from 23.8% in 2024 to just 5.4% in 2025.
By paying higher interest to absorb surplus cash, the Bank successfully stabilized the macroeconomy after a prolonged period of volatility.
The Gold Strategy: Building a Sustainable Future
A cornerstone of the BoG’s recovery is the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP), a strategic shift from borrowing external reserves to accumulating them locally.
This program has seen Ghana’s gold-based reserves swell to $14.5 billion by March 2026.
Dr. Atuahene clarifies that while this strategy contributes to reported losses, these are largely “accounting effects” rather than actual cash losses.
He explains that this is because gold is purchased locally in Cedis but recorded at the official interbank exchange rate; the Cedi’s appreciation in 2025 created a technical discrepancy on the books.
The Bottomline
For Dr. Atuahene, the narrative of the BoG’s 2025 loss is not one of failure, but of calculated sacrifice.
By absorbing these costs, the central bank has provided a shield for the Ghanaian people against inflation while building a more sustainable, gold-backed reserve for the future.
