Ghana’s GoldBod to sell gold-generated dollars directly to banks under new FX framework

Ghana is formalising a new channel for supplying gold-generated dollars to commercial banks, placing its state gold-trading agency at the centre of a key part of the foreign-exchange market.

The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) said on October 5 it has begun consultations with commercial banks on a Spot FX Sales and Intermediation Framework that will give authorised lenders regular access to US dollars generated from the country’s gold trade through its GoldBod GoFX platform.

The arrangement changes who intermediates these gold-linked flows; the programme will still operate under the Bank of Ghana’s regulatory oversight, GoldBod said.

GoldBod has described the change as the central bank’s exit from that role. In a statement on September 30, it said its October programme “marks the exit of the Bank of Ghana from FX intermediation” and its own assumption of full responsibility for it.

The shift also follows a costly episode for the central bank. The International Monetary Fund estimates that the Bank of Ghana recorded more than $1.7bn in losses, equivalent to about 1.5% of GDP, from the domestic gold-purchase programme in 2025.

The IMF said the losses reflected service and assay fees, discounts to off-takers and exchange-rate effects, while noting that some represented valuation effects rather than direct economic costs. They nevertheless weakened the Bank of Ghana’s balance sheet.

GoldBod subsequently assumed responsibility for the programme’s operations and costs, allowing Ghana to continue capturing foreign currency from gold exports without leaving the central bank carrying the same quasi-fiscal exposure.

Under the new framework, GoldBod will ordinarily conduct spot dollar sales twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Participating banks will submit requests during designated sales windows and, where demand exceeds the available FX tranche, allocations will be made proportionately.

Transactions will settle on the same day, with the dollar leg completed by 3 p.m. and the cedi leg by 4 p.m.

Banks will also have to certify that their requests represent genuine unmet customer demand or an existing foreign-currency short position, a safeguard intended to discourage speculative accumulation of dollars.

GoldBod has rapidly become an important supplier of foreign currency to Ghana’s financial system.

The agency generated about $1.87bn from artisanal and small-scale gold trading in September, exceeding its $1.4bn target. Of that amount, $701.3mn was supplied to commercial banks and about $1.17bn went to the Bank of Ghana to support reserve accumulation.

In August, GoldBod generated about $1.32bn, including $668.2mn supplied to banks through spot sales and funded-forward arrangements.

For October, the agency is targeting another $1.5bn, with $1bn intended for commercial banks and as much as $500mn earmarked for reserve accumulation.

That makes the mechanics of GoFX increasingly important to Ghana’s currency market. Rather than the Bank of Ghana routinely standing between gold-generated dollar inflows and lenders, GoldBod will intermediate those flows directly while the central bank retains regulatory oversight.

The Bank of Ghana will have real-time access to the GoFX platform and receive transaction reports after each sale. The system will record electronic submissions, allocations, timestamps and transaction histories, creating an audit trail for post-trade verification.

Source: Intellinews