BoG’s gold purchase losses hit an alarming $1.7 billion in 2025 – IMF reports

It has emerged that losses from the Bank of Ghana’s “Domestic Gold Purchase” programme, implemented through GoldBod, were far greater than initially disclosed. 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. 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.