Uganda has become the latest country in Africa to adopt Ghana's pioneering lead of its central bank buying domestic gold to boost reserves and the economy.

The Bank of Ghana, following the initiative of former Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in 2022, became an African pioneer in Central Bank gold purchasing initiative to boost national reserves - an initiative which has since been commended and emulated by many other African countries.

Today, Uganda’s central bank said it will begin its own domestic gold purchasing programme this month, joining a growing number of central banks worldwide that are boosting their gold holdings amid rising prices.

Gold prices have surged above $5,000 an ounce in 2026, mainly due to central bank demand and global economic uncertainty and Uganda, the reports state, aims to purchase at least 100 kg of gold from March to June 2026, working with local refineries to ensure quality.

“If all goes as planned, we should be able to purchase at least 100 kg of gold between March and June 2026,” Adam Mugume, Director of Research and Policy of Central Bank of Uganda told Reuters.

“We are finalising agreements with gold refineries contracted to carry out fire assaying and refine gold to the required purity levels.”

Before Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya also recently announced their own Central Bank's gold purchasing programmes, thus taking a cue from Ghana's early lead 4 years ago.

Former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia proposed the policy for Ghana, and the government announced that the Bank of Ghana would begin purchasing gold to build the nation's reserves in a move to curb over-reliance on foreign exchange and help stabilise the cedi.

Following the launch of the programme, Ghana's gold reserve was significantly boosted — from a meagre seven tonnes at the start of the programme to over 30 tonnes within three years — before nearly half of the reserves were sold in the last year.

At the time of the introduction of the Gold for Reserves programe by the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Bawumia argued the initiative was necessary to help diversify reserves away from the US dollar amid rising geopolitical tensions and inflation.

Apart from Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia have also followed Ghana's example by announcing their Central Bank's gold purchasing programmes to boos their reserves.

Meanwhile Ghana has renamed its gold for Reserves programme to Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Program, following a bill to Parliament.