Dr. Johnson Asiama, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has said that operational challenges and the need to improve policy efficiency necessitated the suspension of Ghana’s Gold-for-Oil programme.
Speaking before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee today, Monday, December 12, 2026, Dr Asiama said the suspension has already produced positive outcomes.
“The first reference is to observe that since we cancelled the Gold-for-Oil in March 2025, we have not seen a build-up of queues at the pumps. One of the objectives of the policy was for that. So we believe that the cancellation was worth it,” he said.
He explained that the suspension was not intended to terminate the initiative entirely, but to improve its efficiency and effectiveness and added that the Gold for Reserves was meant to increase the country’s reserves which had already showed positive signs.
“There were too many issues under the Gold-for-Oil that we needed to unearth. Therefore, the board authorised an external audit into the policy. We got a PPA approval for the audit two months ago. That exercise is underway,” Dr. Asiama explained.
“The objective of Gold-for-Reserves, as the name suggests, is for us to increase reserves. Based on the data available so far, the evidence is clear that it is not a case of shutting it down, but a question of enhancing its efficiency, looking at inefficiencies that we have to take out. That is why we went after GoldBod,” he added.
In March 2025, the Bank of Ghana announced the suspension of the Gold-for-Oil program, marking a significant shift in the country’s economic strategy. The programme, introduced by the previous government, was intended to reduce reliance on foreign exchange for fuel imports and help stabilise domestic fuel prices.
By: Janice Opoku-Agyemang
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