Gold Board Delivers $15bn Forex Windfall as Ghana Builds Reserve Buffers and Backs the Cedi

Ghana’s Gold Board has generated an estimated US$15 billion in additional foreign exchange inflows, providing a significant boost to the country’s external reserves and strengthening the cedi as the government deepens its strategy to anchor macroeconomic stability through the gold sector.

Presenting the 2026 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review to Parliament on Thursday, Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson described the Ghana Gold Board as one of the administration’s most consequential economic reforms, arguing that its impact extends far beyond revenue mobilisation.

Established to formalise the gold trade, curb smuggling and ensure that more of Ghana’s mineral wealth remains within the domestic economy, the Gold Board has become a central pillar of the government’s broader macroeconomic strategy.

According to Dr. Forson, the initiative generated an additional US$15 billion in foreign exchange inflows, significantly strengthening Ghana’s external position and supporting exchange-rate stability.

“This single policy measure improved Ghana’s current account balance by 6.4 percentage points, from a surplus of 1.9% in 2024 to 8.3% in 2025,” the Finance Minister told Parliament.

He noted that the improvement represented a fourfold increase in Ghana’s current account surplus within a single year, underscoring the scale of the intervention’s impact on the economy.

Rather than viewing the Gold Board solely as a mechanism for increasing government revenue, Dr. Forson said the policy was deliberately designed as a macroeconomic stabilisation tool.

“It is a macroeconomic stabilisation policy designed to strengthen the cedi, build external buffers and restore confidence in the Ghanaian economy,” he said.

To consolidate these gains, the government is implementing the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Policy (GANRAP), which seeks to raise Ghana’s international reserves to the equivalent of 15 months of import cover by the end of 2028.

As part of the strategy, government has reached an agreement with large-scale mining companies to purchase 30% of their annual gold production for processing by local refineries. Officials say the arrangement will increase domestic value addition while simultaneously boosting reserve accumulation.

The Finance Minister also disclosed that amendments to the Bank of Ghana Act have made inflation targeting a shared responsibility between the Ministry of Finance and the central bank, a move intended to improve coordination between fiscal and monetary policy.

The Gold Board has emerged as one of the flagship economic initiatives of the Mahama administration, with government positioning it as a vehicle to formalise Ghana’s gold industry, reduce illicit trade and strengthen the country’s external resilience.

For investors, the reported surge in foreign exchange inflows and stronger reserve accumulation highlights Ghana’s strategy of leveraging its natural resource endowment to reinforce macroeconomic stability while reducing vulnerability to external shocks.