BoG buys first gold in 60 years: Plans to purchase 540kg with GH¢200m in 2021

For the first time in about 60 years, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has purchased gold to augment its gold reserves and shore up the country’s foreign assets.

The bank bought 280 kilogrammes of the precious metal this year under a historic gold purchase programme meant to double its gold reserves and supplement the traditional ways that the country has built reserves over the years.

It has since set aside GH¢200 million to be used to purchase 540kg of gold produced domestically this year.

Although gold purchase is a critical component of central banking across the world, the

BoG only returned to the business this year after exiting it around 1961.

Read also: BoG to purchase gold from local market

It now aims to buy more than 17,500kg — about 17.54 tonnes — of the precious metal in the next five years.

Giving an update on the programme which took off in June this year, the Director of the Financial Markets Department at the BoG, Dr Steve Opata, told the Daily Graphic in Accra last Monday that the initiative had been successful and the bank was on track to hitting its target for the year and the next five years.

Meanwhile gold exports receipts in 2020 increased to US$6.80 billion, from US$6.23 billion in 2019 on account of price increases, Bank of Ghana’s (BoG’s)2020 annual report has stated.

The report said the gold price increase was due to a strong investor appetite for the metal arising from the safe-haven status it enjoys in times of economic and political uncertainty.
The economic disruptions caused by COVID-19 influenced the price of gold, as investors rebalanced their portfolios.

According to the report, the average realised price increased by 27.2%, to US$1,764.16 per fine ounce, while the volume of gold exported decreased by 14.2% to 3,854,012 fine ounces in the review year.