Bank of Ghana to start buying gold locally to shore up reserves

The Bank of Ghana says it will soon begin the purchase of gold from small scale mining firms as part of the bank’s plans to shore up part of its reserves which is held in gold.

Governor of the central bank, Dr Ernest Addison, speaking at the MPC press briefing last Friday stated that the bank would be doing the purchase via selected local gold buying agencies.

He explained that the decision to purchase gold was borne out of the fact that Ghana was one of the lead producers of gold in the world, and the bank was seeking to take advantage by shoring up its reserves using gold produced locally.

“We decided that as a central bank in a country that produces gold, maybe we needed to strengthen our holdings of gold. So, that policy decision was taken and the bank has put in place the modalities and working with some of the local buying agencies on acquiring that gold. Currently, we are finalising arrangements for the refining of that gold. We have not done the first purchase yet,” the Governor said.

He further revealed that the first purchase should have been done last year, but the bank took a decision to shelve it temporarily, adding that the bank was now optimistic that the gold purchasing programme would commence by the middle of this year.