BY ISSAH OLEGOR
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Johnson Asiama, has disclosed that the central bank has not undertaken any direct foreign exchange (FX) market interventions since August 2024, revealing that the recent foreign exchange operations have been driven primarily through the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme rather than the use of the country’s foreign reserves.
The disclosure was contained in written responses submitted by the Governor to Parliament on Wednesday, July 15, during a scheduled appearance before a Committee of the Whole to answer questions from Members of Parliament.
The engagement, however, was held behind closed doors after First Deputy Speaker Bernard Ahiafor ruled that the proceedings would not be open to the media, a decision that sparked strong objections from the Minority Caucus, which argued that the Governor’s responses dealt with matters of significant public interest and should have been discussed openly.
In his response, Dr. Asiama explained that the Bank of Ghana’s foreign exchange operations have fundamentally changed over the past year.
According to him, since August 2024, the central bank has not intervened directly in the forex market using its reserves.
Instead, it has relied on the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP), under which Ghana cedis raised through foreign exchange forward auctions are converted into foreign currency through gold purchases.
He stated that the arrangement has enabled the Bank to channel foreign exchange flows that were previously supplied by independent gold exporters back into the market through Goldbod operations.
“Since August 2024, the Bank of Ghana has not undertaken direct FX market interventions, as its FX operations do not draw on the central bank’s reserves. Instead, FX intermediation has been executed through the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme,” the Governor explained.
Dr. Asiama further disclosed that the current foreign exchange intermediation framework was formally introduced on November 11, 2025, when the Bank announced its New Foreign Exchange Operations Framework.
The policy, he noted, shifted the Bank’s role from directly intervening in the market to facilitating foreign exchange flows through transparent and structured mechanisms.
According to the Governor, foreign exchange sourced from the mining, oil and gas companies also supported market liquidity during part of 2025.
However, that arrangement was discontinued on September 1, 2025, when the responsibility for purchasing forex from those sectors was transferred to commercial banks under a three-month pilot programme aimed at improving liquidity within the banking sector.
He explained that the Bank’s current framework is built around a rule-based approach that allows exchange rates to be determined by market forces while limiting excessive short-term volatility rather than attempting to fix exchange rates through direct intervention.
The Governor stressed that the central bank conducts its foreign exchange operations through market-neutral spot auctions without charging fees or providing guidance on exchange rate pricing.
Providing further details to Parliament, Dr. Asiama revealed that between January 7 and December 31, 2025, the Bank of Ghana intermediated export foreign exchange flows amounting to approximately US$10.36 billion through the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, underscoring the scale of the initiative in supporting liquidity within Ghana’s foreign exchange market.
The Governor’s disclosures come against the backdrop of growing public and parliamentary debate over the source of the recent stability of the Ghana cedi.
