Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia has announced a new policy decision for the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to have first right of refusal for all gold mined in the country, as part of attempts to position the central bank to build mineral reserves to stabilise the cedi.
This means BoG will be given the right to purchase any quantity of locally produced gold it needs before the rest is exported outside the country.
“The central bank will purchase the gold at world market prices and the mining companies will export the portion that is not purchased by the Bank of Ghana. Ultimately, once we accumulate enough gold, future borrowing and our currency can be backed by gold. This will stabilise the cedi long-term,” Dr. Bawumia said at the launch of Accra Business School’s IT Programmes.
“We must also deepen our industrialisation through value addition to gold; even though Ghana has two gold refineries, neither has London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) certification.
“This limits our full participation in the gold value chain. We will urgently work toward LBMA certification for our refineries in the next few years,” he said.
Value addition to minerals such as lithium and bauxite will similarly be pursued in addition to the IDIF programme and continuous implementation of the automotive sector policy, he added.
The latest decision is against the background that despite Ghana being one of the leading gold producers in the world, its reserves of gold at the central bank at the end of 2021 was only 8.7 kilogrammes.
