Breakdown of the $ 1.7 billion loss.

What is going on? The media is on fire! All of last week, the headlines were filled with news about a $1.7 billion loss. We keep hearing Goldbod this and Goldbod that. OPE, what is going on?

Background

Well, on the 4th of August 2026, the IMF released an official economic health check report for Ghana. Somewhere in this report, it is clearly stated that the Bank of Ghana suffered GHC 22 billion in DGPP-related losses in 2025. That is about 1.7 billion US dollars. Yes! Billion with a B. But what is the DGPP, and what does it have to do with the Bank of Ghana or the Gold Board? What is everyone saying, and how does it concern me?

What then is the DGPP?

Is it Goldbod? No, Goldbod is just a part of the whole program. DGPP, or the Domestic Gold Purchasing Program, was born on 17th June, 2021. It was a systematic plan to buy gold from all the local miners in Ghana and use that gold for two things:

• To build up the country’s stock of dollars and other foreign currencies
• To get more foreign currency to supply private businesses, importers, and anyone who needs it to transact business outside of Ghana.

That is what the DGPP is. But how does it work? Stay with me now. There are several players in the DGPP, but the two at the centre of the current controversy are the Bank of Ghana and Goldbod.

Bank of Ghana and Goldbod

Goldbod came into the scene in April 2025. From then till July 2026, the Gold Board’s responsibility under this systematic plan was to buy gold from small-scale miners across the country using money from the Bank of Ghana. After buying the gold, it then hands it over to the Bank of Ghana. The Bank of Ghana decides how much gold to save and how much to sell to international buyers to get foreign currency. So where does the loss come from?
According to the IMF, it came from three things. First of all, Goldbod charged the Bank of Ghana fees for buying and checking the quality of gold from local miners. In addition, when the Bank of Ghana buys gold from local miners through Goldbod, it does so at forex bureau prices, which are often higher than the official BoG rate. However, when they record this purchase, they use the official BoG rate to record it. Finally, when the BoG is selling the gold to international buyers, they have to give them a discount on the price.

What is everyone saying?

Some people argue that Goldbod should share blame for the loss. Why? Because they were part of the process at some point and also charged fees. They argue that this is a sign of mismanagement. The Goldbod CEO also argues otherwise, effectively saying that Goldbod participated in the process, but did not control the transactions responsible for most of the losses.

How does it concern you?

For us, the part that concerns us is the price of goods and services. Remember, one of the reasons for this programme was to get more dollars into the country. Having more dollars available can help reduce pressure on the Cedi. And this matters because when the Cedi loses value, importers need more Cedis to buy the same amount of goods from abroad.

Those extra costs can eventually find their way into the prices we pay for food, fuel, medicines, clothes and other products. So, yes, the programme helped Ghana get more dollars and supported the Cedi. The problem is that doing this came at a huge cost to the Bank of Ghana. The question, therefore, is whether we can continue getting these benefits without recording such huge losses.

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