Paul Bleboo, Head of Gold Management at the Bank of Ghana, has stated that the net cost of the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme was GH¢9.1 billion.

His comments follow the Bank of Ghana's loss of GH¢9.05 billion from its Domestic Gold Purchase Programme in 2025, revealed in its 2025 Financial Report.

Speaking in an interview on the KeyPoints on TV3 on Saturday, May 2, 2026, he said the loss is justified because economic stability comes at a cost.

"The total gross loss of the programme is 21 billion. This programme is a quasi-fiscal activity.

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"The net cost to the bank, the cost that the bank is carrying, is the 9.1billion Cedis. 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," he said.

Bleboo further explained the Domestic Gold Purchase program, where he recalled that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war hurt the economy, especially the Cedi.

According to him, the management of the central bank at the time thought it prudent to leverage Ghana's gold to address the volatility.

"The programme was launched to address the effect of the macroeconomic volatility starting from 2021. We had to think outside the box, so we realised that gold is a reserve asset. So, what can we do with gold? What we can do is to leverage these two things, use the local cedi to buy the gold, export the gold, refine it, and add to our reserve," he explained.

This is compared to a loss of GH¢5.66 billion in 2024. The loss included Net Loss on Gold for Reserves and Net Loss on Gold for Oil.

Under the Gold for Reserves Programme, the report pointed out that doré gold was acquired for foreign exchange generation purposes and was disposed of within the shortest possible time following purchase.

Additionally, the gold was not held for price appreciation or trading gains. The report also stated that the financial outcome of the programme reflected prevailing market prices at the point of sale, based on sale proceeds net of directly attributable costs to sell, relative to the acquisition cost of gold disposed of, together with interest earned on gold deposits.

During the year, 2,914,305 fine ounces of doré gold were purchased (2024: 1,092,492 fine ounces), and 2,895,426 fine ounces were sold (2024: 1,076,125 fine ounces).

The closing doré gold holdings as of 31st December 2025 amounted to 9,283 fine ounces (2024: 7,311 fine ounces).

The report said the net result recognised for the year reflected the realised difference between net sale proceeds and the carrying amount of doré gold sold.

Interest income earned on gold deposits during the year amounted to GH¢0.047 billion.

For the gold for oil program, the revenue from the sale of gold, net of costs to sell and cost of gold sold, amounted to a net loss of GH¢0.544 billion (2024: GH¢0.667 billion).

However, the oil trading activities generated a net gain of GH¢0.341 billion (2024: net loss of GH¢1.155 billion).

The report pointed out that the overall result of the programme reflected gold trading margins, oil trading margins, and related operational costs incurred in the course of meeting foreign exchange and energy supply objectives.

SO/JE