Former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has said the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme was conceived by then Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to strengthen Ghana’s gold and foreign exchange reserves.

Abu Jinapor made the statement in response to recent comments by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer on the programme while addressing the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners.

According to Abu Jinapor, Bawumia conceived the programme when Ghana was facing severe economic challenges following the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

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He said Dr Bawumia, who was then head of the Economic Management Team, held strategic meetings with relevant stakeholders and directed the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to engage stakeholders before the programme was formally launched on June 17, 2021, at the then headquarters of the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

Abu Jinapor said the programme marked the first time the government purchased gold domestically to strengthen the country’s gold reserves and augment its foreign exchange reserves.

Under the programme, the BoG purchased gold locally from licensed aggregators and mining companies and paid them in Ghana cedis based on prevailing market prices.

He said Ghana’s gold reserves stood at 8.77 tonnes when the programme was launched and remained at that level for a considerable period.

According to Abu Jinapor, although the BoG initially targeted doubling the reserves within five years, the figure had almost quadrupled to 30.53 tonnes by December 2024, less than four years after the programme began.

He said the Ministry subsequently engaged the Ghana Chamber of Mines and the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners to advance the objectives of the programme.

Following the engagements, the Ministry invoked the government’s pre-emptive right under Section 7 of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), and issued policy directives to the Minerals Commission and the then Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) on November 23, 2023.

The directives, amended on January 4, 2024, required large-scale mining companies to sell 20% of their refined gold to the BoG in Ghana cedis before exporting the remainder.

Community Mining Schemes and licensed small-scale miners were also required to sell their gold to the government through PMMC.

Abu Jinapor said the policy focused on licensed and responsible small-scale miners to prevent the purchase of illegally sourced gold.

He added that Ghana’s gold exports reached a record US$11.6 billion in 2024, compared with US$7.6 billion in 2023 and US$6.6 billion in 2022.

GANARAP

Abu Jinapor also described the current government’s Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Policy (GANARAP) as a renaming of the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme.

“It is also a fact that this renamed policy has resulted in the sale of more than half of the gold accumulated by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Government under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme,” he said.

Abu Jinapor maintained that the programme significantly increased Ghana’s gold reserves and contributed to the country’s economic stability.


MA