The Minister for Finance. Dr  Cassiel Ato Forson has announced a comprehensive restructuring of Ghana’s gold acquisition framework, placing the Ghana Gold Board at the centre of efforts to strengthen foreign exchange reserves, deepen local value addition and tighten oversight in the mining sector.

Addressing Parliament on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, Dr. Forson revealed that the government will revise the existing arrangement under which the Bank of Ghana acquires 20 per cent of gold produced by large-scale mining companies.

To enforce compliance, the government will establish an Inter-Agency Committee co-chaired by the Ministers for Finance and Lands and Natural Resources.

The committee will include the Governor of the Bank of Ghana as well as the Chief Executive Officers of the Minerals Commission and the Ghana Gold Board.

Under the new policy, the Lands Minister will invoke the state’s pre-emption rights under the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 and the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 to purchase at least 20 per cent of large-scale gold output—equivalent to a minimum of 0.57 tonnes per week.

The gold will be acquired strictly in doré form and processed locally to promote value addition.

Transactions will be conducted in cedis at the prevailing interbank exchange rate, with discounts determined based on volume.

Dr. Forson explained that the doré acquired will be refined by local refineries before being shipped to refineries certified by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) for final processing, including melting, bar casting and stamping.

The refined gold will then be added to Ghana’s physical reserves and may only be sold by the central bank with prior approval from Cabinet and Parliament.

He said the reforms are aimed at strengthening enforcement mechanisms, enhancing transparency and governance, reducing acquisition costs and supporting local refineries to attain LBMA certification standards.

He added that the Ghana Gold Board is well-positioned to oversee the new regime, given its presence in the gold rooms of large-scale mining companies and its role in assaying gold output before export.

The framework, he noted, has already been piloted with nine large-scale mining firms over the past six months.

Turning to the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) sector, the Minister announced that the Board will target the purchase of at least 2.45 tonnes of ASM gold weekly through official channels to boost foreign exchange inflows.

Over the next three years, the Board aims to acquire approximately 127 tonnes of ASM gold annually—projected at current prices to generate more than US$20 billion in foreign exchange each year.

To sustain market participation, the Board will secure funding to purchase three to four weeks’ supply of gold at any given time.

Beginning March 2026, the Ghana Gold Board will assume full responsibility for signing off-take agreements and managing the sale of all ASM gold it procures, a move Dr. Forson said will improve trading efficiency and reduce losses.

The Board will also introduce gold-backed derivative trading programmes and hedging strategies to manage price volatility, alongside price incentives—including spot market purchases and bonuses for licensed miners—to curb smuggling and channel more gold through formal systems.

In the medium term, the policy seeks to promote ASM formalisation, enhance traceability across the gold value chain and expand local refining capacity to maximise export returns sustainably.

Additionally, the Bank of Ghana and the Ghana Gold Board are expected to formalise an agreement requiring the Board to sell all foreign exchange generated under the policy exclusively to the central bank at a mutually agreed cost.

Dr. Forson described the reforms as pivotal to strengthening Ghana’s external buffers and ensuring the country derives greater long-term value from its gold resources, consolidating the Ghana Gold Board’s role as the central vehicle for managing and expanding the nation’s gold reserves.