Joe Jackson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dalex Finance, has questioned how the Bank of Ghana (BoG) continues to record losses on gold trading despite buying and selling the same commodity, describing the situation as difficult to justify and urgently in need of correction.
Speaking on Key Points on TV3 on Saturday, May 2, Jackson said the trading losses were a serious concern that demanded immediate attention. “The gold losses are problematic, the trading losses are really bad. How do we go trading in gold and be making losses? We have got to fix these trading losses,” he said.
Paul Bleboo, Head of Gold Management at the Bank of Ghana, pushed back, arguing that the losses were a deliberate and measured cost of achieving macroeconomic stability rather than evidence of poor management.
Bleboo told the same programme that the net cost borne by the central bank under its Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP) stood at GH¢9.1 billion, against a gross programme loss of GH¢21 billion. He framed the shortfall as a quasi-fiscal expense tied to currency and economic stability.
“The net cost to the bank is the GH¢9.1 billion. We all saw what happened in 2025 and we are all witnesses to the economic stability we are enjoying, the currency stability. Definitely, there is a cost to it,” Bleboo said.
He traced the origins of the programme to the economic turbulence triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, which put severe pressure on the cedi. Central bank management at the time determined that leveraging Ghana’s gold endowment was the most viable path to easing currency volatility.
“We had to think outside the box. Gold is a reserve asset. What we can do is use the local cedi to buy the gold, export the gold, refine it and add to our reserve,” he explained.
The exchange comes after the BoG’s 2025 Financial Report confirmed that the central bank lost GH¢9.05 billion through the DGPP in 2025, a significant increase from the GH¢5.66 billion loss recorded in 2024. During the year, the bank purchased 2,914,305 fine ounces of doré gold and sold 2,895,426 fine ounces. The Gold for Oil programme, which was discontinued in March 2025, generated a net oil trading gain of GH¢0.341 billion, partially offsetting a GH¢0.544 billion loss on the gold component of that scheme.
The debate reflects a broader divide among economists and policymakers over whether the accounting losses embedded in Ghana’s gold programmes represent genuine financial damage or an acceptable price for the reserve accumulation and currency stability achieved over the past four years.
