The Bank of Ghana says GHS 17.5 billion of the reported cost of its 2025 Domestic Gold Purchase Programme was an accounting loss driven by the cedi's appreciation, not cash that left the country, Paul Bleboo, Head of Gold Management, told Parliament's Committee on Economy and Development on Friday 6 November 2026.
According to a 3News account of the hearing, gold was bought at the local market rate, exported, and the dollar proceeds booked in cedis about 10 days later against a much stronger reference rate. Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama's written statement to the committee said the cedi appreciated 40.7% against the US dollar in 2025, so each dollar converted into fewer cedis.
Bleboo illustrated the gap with a move from about GHS 15 to about GHS 12 per dollar and said that "chunk" of the total cost was "an accounting loss and not a real loss."
3News reported that the GHS 17.5 billion figure is the exchange-rate slice of gross cost and should not be stacked on the GHS 9.05 billion net loss on gold deals in the 2025 financial statements (GHS 8.85 billion for gold for reserves and GHS 203 million for gold for oil). The same note recognises GHS 7.99 billion of realised gains on monetary gold inside the reserves line.
A separate GHS 19.32 billion loss in other comprehensive income reflects the lower cedi value of foreign assets already on the books.
Bleboo said the programme generated about US$10 billion in foreign exchange in 2025 and added about 11 tonnes of gold to reserves, with a purity allowance of 0.7–0.8% and an off-take discount cut to 1% in 2025. Separately, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia told NPP members in Tokyo that trading gold rather than holding it had cost the central bank US$1.7 billion — a sum 3News linked to an IMF 2025 assessment; the Bank had not answered that claim by the evening of the report.
StatsGH has not independently obtained the Bank's full 2025 statements or Asiama's written submission; figures above are attributed to Bleboo's committee testimony and the Bank's accounts as reported by 3News.
Sources: 3News.