Ghana will deepen the diversification of its foreign exchange reserves through increased gold accumulation in the coming years to strengthen the local cedi currency, President John Dramani Mahama has said.
In his State of the Nation Address in parliament on Friday, Mahama said that the projected surge in global gold prices over the next three years presents the West African country with a unique opportunity to increase its gold reserves.
“We have an opportunity to build an economic war chest to withstand global economic shocks, secure macroeconomic stability, improve the standard of living for Ghanaians, and build lasting prosperity for future generations,” Mahama said.
The president said the country’s reserves, totaling over 13 billion U.S. dollars, equivalent to five months of import cover, were partly due to the work of the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), which has streamlined gold trade, eliminated or reduced smuggling and increased official gold export volumes to earn more foreign exchange for the country.
According to him, the recently introduced Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Policy (GANRAP), a framework to guide the government’s reserve gold purchase program, is intended to strengthen Ghana’s external resilience by increasing international reserves to 15 months of import cover by the end of 2028, supporting long-term structural transformation while safeguarding macroeconomic stability.
The GANRAP underscores the government’s commitment to using Ghana’s natural resources strategically to shield the economy from external shocks and build confidence in the country’s economic management framework, said the president.
Ghana’s parliament earlier approved the GANRAP, which empowers the GoldBod to support reserve accumulation through the Bank of Ghana. Under the program, the West African cocoa, gold, and crude oil exporter aims to achieve 8.6 months of import cover by the end of 2026, 11.8 months by 2027, and reach 15 months by 2028. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
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