BoG Ends GoldBod Gold Financing Amid Inflation Concern

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BoG Ends GoldBod Gold Financing Amid Inflation Concern

The Bank of Ghana has stopped bankrolling the Ghana Gold Board’s gold purchases from July 1, forcing the Monetary Policy Committee to confront a shrinking liquidity buffer just as inflation creeps upward.

Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama disclosed the change in his opening remarks at the 131st Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Accra, describing it as a shift in how the central bank manages domestic liquidity.

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) had financed the Ghana Gold Board’s (GoldBod) purchases of gold from small-scale miners and aggregators since 2021, under a programme built to strengthen the country’s foreign exchange reserves. Asiama said the withdrawal “removes one source of liquidity injection” at a time when private sector credit is expanding fast.

The governor said inflation, though still low, has begun to edge up after months of decline, adding urgency to the committee’s review of its current policy stance.

Ghana’s economy grew 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2026, up from 6.2 percent a year earlier, giving the central bank some room as it works through the liquidity shift. The MPC held its policy rate at 14 percent in May and replaced its tiered cash reserve requirement with a uniform 20 percent ratio held in domestic currency, reforms the committee will now weigh alongside the GoldBod change.

Asiama listed four issues shaping this week’s deliberations: the inflation outlook, the effectiveness of the May reforms, the changing mix of domestic liquidity after the end of GoldBod prefinancing, and renewed volatility in global oil markets that could raise import costs for an economy that both exports commodities and imports fuel.

The Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, launched in 2021, let the BoG prefinance GoldBod’s local gold buys as part of a wider effort to diversify Ghana’s reserves and cushion the economy against external shocks. Its removal leaves the committee to decide whether existing sterilisation and structural tools can absorb the lost liquidity source without further tightening.

Asiama Lays Out Four-Point Test Behind Rate Hold

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Asiama Lays Out Four-Point Test Behind Rate Hold

Before the Bank of Ghana’s Monetary Policy Committee settled on holding its benchmark rate at 14 percent this week, Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama opened the 131st meeting on Monday by framing the decision around four questions: whether inflation risks are shifting, whether recent reforms have actually improved policy transmission, whether tighter liquidity needs a response, and how renewed oil market volatility could hit the balance of payments.

“Our task this week is not simply to assess the latest data; our task is to determine whether the framework that strengthened in May remain fit for the conditions now before us and whether the choices we made then continue to serve the medium-term objectives on which our credibility depends,” Asiama told the committee.

On inflation, Asiama said policymakers needed to weigh external commodity price pressures against the domestic risk of higher utility tariffs and transport fares, warning those factors could turn what began as an external shock into a homegrown one. Headline inflation has already climbed from 3.2 percent in March to 5.3 percent in June, driven largely by transport and haulage costs, though it remains within the bank’s target band of 8 percent plus or minus 2 percentage points.

On transmission, Asiama pointed to persistent rigidity in interbank rates at the lower bound of the policy corridor, the problem a revised cash reserve ratio framework introduced in May was designed to fix, and said the committee would judge whether that reform is working or needs further adjustment. On liquidity, he said the end of central bank refinancing for gold purchases had removed a source of liquidity injection at a time when private sector credit is expanding rapidly, with real credit growth accelerating to 34.1 percent from a 4.5 percent contraction a year earlier, requiring the committee to weigh the balance between short-term stabilisation and longer-term structural measures.

On oil, Asiama noted that a mid-June ceasefire had briefly eased Middle East tensions before renewed hostilities around the Strait of Hormuz pushed Brent crude above $85 a barrel, slowing global disinflation and pushing some central banks to reconsider further easing. “For Ghana, as both a commodity exporter and energy importer, these developments underscore the need to carefully assess how external cost pressures could influence the domestic inflation outlook,” he said.

Asiama pointed to broader resilience underpinning the decision: GDP grew 6.4 percent in the first quarter, up from 6.2 percent a year earlier, the GDP deflator eased to 4.1 percent, and the exchange rate held broadly stable through the first half of July. He said the banking system remains sound and well-capitalised, though elevated non-performing loan ratios show credit risks have not been fully resolved. On Ghana’s relationship with the IMF, Asiama said engagement on transitioning from the Extended Credit Facility programme, due to conclude in August, to a 36-month non-financing Policy Coordination Instrument would continue alongside the bank’s monetary policy decisions.

US Strikes Iran’s Larak Island as Trump Vows More

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US Strikes Iran’s Larak Island as Trump Vows More

The United States struck Iran’s Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, hours after President Donald Trump said the US was “not finished” with a war that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said has now cost Washington $37.5 billion, up from an earlier estimate of nearly $29 billion.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported the missile strike on Larak, saying authorities were still assessing the damage. US Central Command said the attack was its eleventh consecutive night of strikes aimed at degrading Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping through the strait, after fighting over the waterway derailed a preliminary agreement between Washington and Tehran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US remained open to a negotiated settlement but that Iran did not “seem to be serious about that,” while defending the strikes as a response to Iranian attacks on commercial vessels and Iran’s efforts to rebuild its missile and drone capabilities. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said diplomatic contacts with Washington through mediators were continuing.

Trump also warned the US could target the underground Kolang Mountain complex near Natanz, where Western intelligence agencies suspect Iran may be running an undeclared uranium enrichment site. Baqaei denied any nuclear activity there, calling the allegation “a fabricated pretext for aggression” and accusing the US of violating UN rules; he also questioned the absence of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi, who has told the BBC that IAEA inspectors should return to Iran soon to verify its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Iran’s Khatam Al-Anbiya military command said any strike on the Natanz-area site would mark “an expansion of war in the region” and threatened to hit “all the interests of America, the allies and supporters.”

The conflict continued to spread across the Gulf. Kuwait said its air defences intercepted Iranian drones, Jordan said it shot down four missiles and four drones, and air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, after explosions were reported there. Iran’s military claimed responsibility for attacks on US assets in Kuwait and Bahrain, including air defence and radar installations, while the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had targeted US bases in Jordan; none of these claims were independently verified. Yemen’s Houthi rebels threatened to blockade Saudi Arabian ports, prompting Trump to warn the US would “take care of” the group if it followed through. No new attacks on shipping have been confirmed, though maritime intelligence firm Vanguard Tech said two oil tankers reversed course in the Red Sea after loading crude at Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port.

The renewed threat to shipping pushed Brent crude up 4.4 percent to more than $95 a barrel, its highest level in six weeks, with analysts warning that any disruption to Saudi export routes could have significant consequences for global energy markets. Trump said the war would continue despite domestic pressure to end it ahead of November’s legislative elections: “We’re not finished at all, we’re not leaving right now,” he said.

BoG Warns Rejecting Cedi Coins Is a Crime

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BoG Warns Rejecting Cedi Coins Is a Crime

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has warned traders, transport operators and businesses that refusing to accept Ghana cedi coins as payment is a criminal offence, punishable by up to three years in prison, a fine, or both, in a public notice issued Wednesday.

The notice, numbered BG/GOV/SEC/2026/23, said the central bank had observed widespread refusal of the 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 pesewa coins and the GH¢1 and GH¢2 coins, despite none of them being withdrawn or demonetised. All remain legal tender under the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612), and the Currency Act, 1964 (Act 242), the bank said, and no trader, transport operator or business has the authority to reject them over inconvenience, low value or personal preference.

Under the Currency Act, refusing to sell goods or provide a service solely because a customer is paying with legal tender coins or banknotes is an offence, the BoG said, and business owners who instruct employees to reject coins face the same penalties as those who do so directly. The notice added that anyone caught committing the offence may be arrested without a warrant, and that the bank will work with the Ghana Police Service to investigate and prosecute violators. It urged the public to report coin rejection to the nearest BoG office, the police, or the bank’s official communication channels.

The coin notice follows an earlier directive issued July 14, numbered BG/GOV/SEC/2026/17 and signed by Secretary to the Bank Aimee Vyda Quashie, which addressed a different set of currency-handling offences, including spraying cedi notes at weddings and other events, assembling money bouquets, defacing or tampering with coins, and unauthorised use of currency images. Together, the two notices form part of a wider push by the central bank to enforce proper handling of the cedi.

Tebas Calls on Infantino to Resign as FIFA Chief

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Tebas Calls on Infantino to Resign as FIFA Chief

La Liga president Javier Tebas called on FIFA president Gianni Infantino to resign, telling Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview published Tuesday that Infantino’s tenure has run its course but that football’s governance system makes him nearly impossible to unseat.

“In my opinion, yes, I think his time is up,” Tebas said, adding that Infantino “has the support of the system and the federations” and that no rival is willing to challenge him in an election he would likely lose. “There’s no opposition candidate, nobody wants to stand just to lose. This is the system and it’s rotten at its core,” he said. FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tebas’s remarks.

Tebas, speaking while in the United States for Spain’s World Cup final win over Argentina on Sunday, criticised several decisions from the tournament, which the US co-hosted with Canada and Mexico. He dismissed the competition’s hydration breaks as pretextual advertising stoppages given that stadiums in Dallas, Los Angeles and Atlanta were air-conditioned, and called the reversal of a suspension for US striker Folarin Balogun, which let him play against Belgium despite a red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina, “something of absolute gravity.”

He also renewed his opposition to expanding the World Cup field from 48 to 64 teams, a proposal CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez said this week would apply to the 2030 tournament, which Spain will co-host with Portugal and Morocco. “Increasing the number of national teams makes no sense,” Tebas said, arguing FIFA “arranges things as it pleases, for its own interests, certainly not for football.”

Infantino, FIFA president since 2016, announced in April that he would seek a fourth term; the vote for the 2027-2031 presidency is scheduled for FIFA’s congress in Morocco next March.

FBI Captures Fugitive in US$547M Medicare Fraud Case

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FBI Captures Fugitive in US$547M Medicare Fraud Case

Khalid Ahmed Satary, 54, accused of masterminding a scheme that allegedly defrauded the US Medicare programme of more than $547 million, was captured in the Middle East on Monday after more than three years on the run, the US Department of Justice said.

Satary was carrying a fake Mexican passport issued under an assumed name when regional authorities apprehended him, according to the FBI, which had added him to its Most Wanted Fraudsters list on June 23, less than a month before his capture. The list, created June 4 as part of a Trump administration initiative targeting large-scale financial fraud, has now produced three fugitive arrests in five weeks, FBI Director Kash Patel said.

Prosecutors allege that between 2016 and 2019, Satary owned and operated diagnostic testing laboratories that billed Medicare for expensive, medically unnecessary genetic tests, using patient recruiters, telemarketing firms and telemedicine providers to generate fraudulent claims through deceptive marketing, illegal kickbacks and bribery. He was indicted in 2019 in the Eastern District of Louisiana on charges including healthcare fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to pay illegal kickbacks. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the scheme “preyed on thousands of elderly patients, deceiving them into undergoing expensive, medically unnecessary tests.”

The FBI alleges Satary continued the fraud after being released on bond under conditions barring him from working in healthcare, prompting a federal judge to issue an arrest warrant in November 2022 when he was accused of violating that release. He remained at large until this week’s capture.

Satary is expected to be extradited to the United States to stand trial. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, up to 10 years for healthcare fraud, and additional penalties on the kickback conspiracy charges.

BoG Holds Rate at 14% as Inflation Ticks Up

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BoG Holds Rate at 14% as Inflation Ticks Up

The Bank of Ghana’s Monetary Policy Committee unanimously held its benchmark rate at 14 percent on Wednesday, even as headline inflation rose for a third straight month, from 3.2 percent in March to 5.3 percent in June, driven largely by higher transport and haulage costs.

Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama said the committee, meeting for the 131st time from July 20 to 22, needed to determine whether the recent uptick reflects a temporary shock or a more persistent trend that could unsettle inflation expectations, which remain below the bank’s target range despite the rise. He pointed to external risks compounding the picture: “Potential upward adjustments in utility tariffs together with escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the associated increase in crude oil prices present upside risks to the inflation outlook,” he said.

Asiama said the domestic economy remains resilient enough to absorb the pressure. Real GDP grew 6.4 percent in the first quarter, slightly ahead of 6.2 percent a year earlier, while the bank’s Composite Index of Economic Activity jumped 13.4 percent in May, up sharply from 4.4 percent a year prior, on stronger private lending, industrial output, trade and tourism. Private sector credit growth accelerated to 41.2 percent in June as average lending rates eased to 15.6 percent.

Ghana’s external position showed similar strength alongside new pressure points. The trade surplus widened to US$8.8 billion in the first half of the year and the current account surplus rose to US$5.1 billion, supported by gold and cocoa exports, but gross international reserves slipped to US$12.9 billion at the end of June, down from US$13.8 billion in December, which Asiama attributed to higher energy-related payments. He said the reserve position remains adequate despite the decline. The cedi, which came under pressure in May before recovering, still shows a cumulative depreciation of 9.5 percent against the dollar as of July 17.

The same meeting saw the central bank confirm plans to exit its remaining shareholdings in the Agricultural Development Bank and National Investment Bank, separately reported. The MPC’s next meeting is scheduled for September 22 to 24, with a rate decision due September 24.

MP Says Gold, Not Reform, Drives Ghana’s Growth

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MP Says Gold, Not Reform, Drives Ghana’s Growth

Opposition lawmaker Kojo Oppong Nkrumah challenged the government’s economic narrative on Wednesday, arguing that Ghana’s 6.4 percent first-quarter growth was concentrated in gold mining rather than reflecting broad policy reforms, a day ahead of Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson’s mid-year budget review.

Oppong Nkrumah, the New Patriotic Party’s ranking member on Parliament’s Economy and Development Committee, pointed to the industrial sector’s jump from 1.9 percent to 6.9 percent growth in a single quarter. “If you double click it shows you that it is on the back of gold mining and export earnings hitting a record US$31.1 billion in 2025,” he said, referring to Bank of Ghana data showing gold alone generated roughly $20 billion of that total.

Official Ghana Statistical Service figures show a more mixed picture than a mining-only story: services was the largest single contributor to the quarter’s growth, expanding 7.1 percent and accounting for 48.3 percent of the overall increase, driven partly by a 25.2 percent surge in information and communication. Industry’s rebound, which Oppong Nkrumah highlighted, was real and substantial, powered by gold output rising 15.7 percent and an oil and gas recovery after a sharp contraction the previous year.

Oppong Nkrumah questioned the durability of the growth, asking what Ghana’s headline figures, trade surplus and primary balance would look like “if gold returns to its five-year average price,” and where the government would then find foreign exchange to continue supporting the currency. He called on Forson to include a gold-price sensitivity analysis in Thursday’s budget review to show how the economy would perform under different international price scenarios.

The Finance Ministry had not responded to the specific critique as of Wednesday, ahead of Thursday’s scheduled presentation to Parliament, where Forson is expected to set out the government’s fiscal performance and revised outlook for the rest of 2026.

EU Funds €700k Forensic Lab for Ghana’s OSP

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EU Funds €700k Forensic Lab for Ghana’s OSP

The European Union has funded a €700,000 upgrade to the Office of the Special Prosecutor’s (OSP) forensic capacity, delivering an ISO-standard forensic laboratory and four investigative interview rooms intended to strengthen evidence quality in Ghana’s corruption prosecutions.

The project was implemented through GIZ, Germany’s development agency, and included specialised forensic equipment, facility installation and technical training for OSP staff, the office said. It follows months of visible progress on the facility: a delegation from Zambia’s Anti-Corruption Commission touring the OSP’s operations in June was shown the lab and interview rooms still under construction, describing the project as expected to strengthen the office’s capacity to handle complex corruption and financial crime cases to international standards.

The OSP, led by Special Prosecutor Kissi Agyebeng and Deputy Special Prosecutor Cynthia Lamptey, said the new capacity would improve scientific examination of evidence and the reliability of information gathered during investigations, supporting cases built to standards accepted internationally. The office described the support as part of a broader push to build a more technologically capable institution across investigations, asset recovery and corruption-prevention work, including risk assessments that help public institutions identify vulnerabilities before they lead to financial losses.

The upgrade is the latest in a series of EU- and GIZ-backed initiatives supporting the OSP, which have also included a national dialogue on the office’s institutional independence organised with the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) earlier this year, alongside an eight-year assessment of the OSP’s performance. The OSP described the continued support as a sign of confidence in Ghana’s anti-corruption efforts and said it would continue to run its Youth Against Corruption programme, which promotes ethical leadership among young people.

Bank of Ghana to Exit Remaining ADB, NIB Stakes

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Bank of Ghana to Exit Remaining ADB, NIB Stakes

The Bank of Ghana plans to sell its remaining shares in the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and the National Investment Bank (NIB) before the end of the year, Governor Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama said Tuesday, to separate the central bank’s regulatory role from any ownership stake in the lenders it supervises.

Speaking after the 131st Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Accra, Asiama said the central bank’s board has already approved the sale of its roughly 13 percent residual stake in ADB, with the transaction expected to close later this year. “We cannot be the regulator of an institution that we regulate at the same time,” he said, adding that the bank would also dispose of a smaller, roughly 1 percent stake in NIB.

The Bank of Ghana’s shareholding in ADB has shrunk sharply from the near-48 percent it held through its Financial Investment Trust in previous years, largely because the government’s recapitalisation of ADB, including an GH¢850 million deposit for shares in 2025 and a further private placement approved by shareholders in June, has diluted existing shareholders’ proportional stakes as the state took a larger position. ADB’s own unaudited half-year results, released this month, show total equity nearly doubling to GH¢2.67 billion as of June 30, alongside a capital adequacy ratio that recovered from a deficit to 26.94 percent over the same period.

Asiama also addressed recent business and consumer confidence data, which he said showed only a marginal softening despite global pressures including geopolitical tensions and broader financial market strain. “The dip we have seen is quite a marginal one, just a small dip. It hasn’t been significant,” he said, citing assessments including input from the Chartered Institute of Bankers. He attributed the weaker sentiment to international shocks rather than any deterioration in Ghana’s own economic fundamentals.

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