The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) is preparing to end the Bank of Ghana’s role as an intermediary in financing its gold purchases, Chief Executive Officer Sammy Gyamfi said, as the state-owned gold trader moves towards funding its operations through commercial banks, offtakers and other market-based arrangements.
Gyamfi said GoldBod had already tested a new financing mechanism that raised US$75 million without using the central bank, signalling a shift in the financing structure behind Ghana’s gold-backed reserve accumulation strategy.
“We don’t want to depend on the Bank of Ghana again as an intermediary raising money for us,” Gyamfi said during a discussion on GoldBod’s financing arrangements.
The move comes as the government seeks to use gold purchases to build Ghana’s foreign-exchange reserves to the equivalent of 15 months of import cover by 2028 under the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Programme (GANRAP).
Ghana’s gross international reserves stood at US$12.9 billion, equivalent to five months of import cover, at the end of June 2026, according to the Bank of Ghana. That was down from US$13.8 billion, or 5.7 months of import cover, at the end of 2025, following higher energy-related payments.
The reserve target, therefore, represents a substantial expansion of the country’s external buffer, with gold expected to provide a major source of foreign exchange and reserve accumulation.
Sammy Gyamfi said GoldBod’s previous relationship with the central bank should not be interpreted as the Bank of Ghana pre-financing the Board.
Under the 2025 Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, GoldBod inherited the role of buying gold on behalf of the Bank of Ghana from the Precious Minerals Marketing Company. The central bank provided the funds because it remained the owner of the gold under that arrangement.
“If I’m your agent and you’re the principal, you give me money to buy gold for you. That is not pre-financing of GoldBod,” Gyamfi said.
That arrangement changed in March 2026, when GoldBod began to “fully implement its statutory mandate” under the GoldBod Act and the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Programme (GANRAP). Unlike the previous arrangement, GoldBod now owns the gold it purchases and is responsible for selling it, with the proceeds used to generate foreign exchange and build reserves.
Gyamfi said the Bank of Ghana subsequently acted as an intermediary, converting cedi funding from commercial banks and other market participants into dollars for GoldBod-related transactions.
But he said GoldBod decided to remove the central bank from that role partly because of concerns over the perception of quasi-fiscal activity and the risk of the International Monetary Fund interpreting the arrangement as central-bank financing of GoldBod.
The IMF has stressed the importance of ending quasi-fiscal activities at the Bank of Ghana as part of Ghana’s efforts to strengthen central-bank independence and monetary policy credibility.
GoldBod is now pursuing two alternative funding channels.
The first is to secure advance dollar payments from its international offtakers and make those foreign-exchange proceeds available through commercial banks.
The second is a forward foreign-exchange arrangement under which GoldBod sells dollars to banks ahead of receiving the proceeds from future gold sales.
Gyamfi said GoldBod tested the latter mechanism on August 3 and raised US$75 million within 48 hours without using the Bank of Ghana.
“We were able to convert the cedi equivalent of $75 million into dollars. We didn’t use the Bank of Ghana,” he said.
The framework is being refined with the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance, with GoldBod expecting the process to be completed by August 19.
The change could reduce the direct financing role of the central bank in the gold programme while increasing the role of commercial banks and private-sector counterparties in funding gold purchases.
It also comes as GoldBod expands its purchasing mandate. In June, the Board agreed with the Ghana Chamber of Mines to purchase 30% of the gold output of large-scale mining companies from July 1, at a 0.55% discount and in cedis at the Bank of Ghana reference rate.
Gold has become important to Ghana’s external position. Bank of Ghana data showed that gold exports generated US$12.50 billion in the first six months of 2026, accounting for more than two-thirds of total export receipts of US$18.29 billion. The country recorded a trade surplus of US$8.81 billion during the period.
The scale of the gold strategy means the financing model will matter beyond GoldBod’s own balance sheet.
The government has set a weekly gold purchase target of about 3.02 tonnes under GANRAP, with an intermediate target of increasing reserves to 8.6 months of import cover by the end of 2026, before reaching 11.8 months in 2027 and 15 months in 2028.
Ghana’s current five months of import cover remains well below the government’s 15-month target.
The new financing model shifts responsibility for funding GoldBod’s gold purchases away from the Bank of Ghana, while requiring the Board to manage liquidity, commodity-price risks and the costs of the reserve-building programme.
The August 19 deadline for the revised financing framework, together with GoldBod’s ability to repeat its US$75 million forward-FX transaction at scale, will provide an early indication of whether the Board can successfully transition from a central-bank intermediary model to a self-funded gold trading operation.
