Ghana’s gold is doing the heavy lifting for the cedi: the Ghana Gold Board says it earned more than a billion dollars in foreign exchange in October alone.
Main image: DGBN graphic
The board, known as GoldBod, said on Monday, 2 November, that its artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) gold trading operations generated US$1.011 billion in foreign exchange last month.
According to the statement, the entire sum was sold to authorised commercial banks through its GoldBod GoFX platform, with the aim of keeping the foreign exchange market stable.
Bigger target for November
GoldBod is now projecting US$1.2 billion in foreign exchange from small-scale gold trading in November. Of that, US$800 million, about two-thirds, is earmarked for sale to commercial banks.
The board said the sales would run through GoFX under its approved FX Sales and Intermediation Framework, which it says is designed to ensure transparency, fairness and regulatory compliance.
It also pledged to keep supporting the Bank of Ghana’s reserve-building drive under the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Policy (GANRAP). GoldBod’s mandate to generate foreign exchange from the gold trade comes from the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140).
A new player in Ghana’s dollar market
The October figure follows signals from the Bank of Ghana that it would not carry out its usual FX intermediation for the month, with GoldBod stepping in to supply banks instead. The central bank’s governor has since stressed that GoldBod is supporting, not replacing, the bank’s role in the currency market, while the Bank of Ghana focuses on building reserves.
How much the November dollars ease pressure on the cedi will depend partly on when the sales happen and how the money is spread across the banking system.
The push comes as Accra looks to build on an improving economic outlook. Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson recently said Ghana would beat the IMF’s upgraded growth forecast, as DGBN reported here.
Why it matters
For decades, much of Africa’s gold has left the continent with too little of its value staying at home. Ghana’s model, which channels small-scale gold through a state buyer and turns it into dollars for local banks, is an attempt to change that. Neighbours are moving in the same direction, with Burkina Faso opening its first gold refinery this year. If the numbers hold, Ghana could offer a template for resource-rich African economies seeking steadier currencies and stronger reserves.