The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has maintained that its foreign exchange (forex) market intervention for the first quarter of 2025 has not depleted its reserves.

The BoG, according to what JOYBUSINESS has picked up added US$1.6 billion to its reserves for the first six months of the year, surpassing the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) reserve build-up target of US$493 million for the first half of 2025.

The development has moved the BoG’s Gross Reserves to US$11 billion, representing 4.8 months of import cover. 

Background

The IMF in its Staff report submitted to its board as part of the fourth programme review revealed that the BoG sold $1.4 billion in foreign exchange during the first quarter of 2025.

“The Bank of Ghana’s footprint in the FX market continued to increase. Large-scale FX intervention continued in 2025, reaching $1.4 billion in the first quarter,” the IMF report said.

It observed that, “this action by the BoG contributed to the about 60 percent appreciation of the Ghana cedi against the dollar between November 2024 and May 2025”.

The IMF said this marked a sharp acceleration in market activity, surpassing the total $1 billion the bank injected across all of 2023.

“In 2024, interventions rose further to $3 billion with $2 billion sold in the fourth quarter alone, ahead of the general election” the IMF revealed.

BoG on market intervention

The BoG has explained that the $1.4 billion sold to support market activities and commercial banks demand was part of a strategy to redistribute proceeds from its gold purchase to the market.

JOYBUSINESS understands that, under the Gold Purchase Programme, proceeds have been centralized through the bank and as a result there is the need to redistribute the foreign exchange resources back to the market to ensure that the foreign exchange market remains liquid.

“In the past, some of these funds were being channeled through the commercial banks” persons with knowledge of the programme have explained to JOYBUSINESS.

Since the launch of the Gold-for-Reserve programme, the funds have come through the central bank within the Gold-for-Reserve programme.

⁠Data from the central bank shows that for the first quarter of 2025, the Gold-for-Reserve programme earned the BoG a total of US$1.458 billion.

The BoG, as a matter of policy, redistributed the amount back to the economy and sold back US$1.442 billion.

However, sources say, the arguments and explanation could not be captured in the IMF Staff report, before it was submitted to its board for the fourth review programme.

The BoG has maintained that it does not dispute the numbers captured in the IMF staff report but however, wishes to state that they are re-cycled resources from the Gold-for-Reserve programme and that the activity has not in any way impaired its reserve accumulation efforts.