The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Johnson Asiama, has justified the central bank’s decision to terminate the Gold-for-Oil programme in March 2025, while reaffirming its commitment to reforming and strengthening the Gold-for-Reserves initiative.

Appearing before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Accra, Dr Asiama said the cancellation of the Gold-for-Oil policy has achieved one of its primary objectives—eliminating fuel shortages and long queues at fuel stations.

He noted that since the programme was discontinued, there has been no resurgence of long queues at the pumps, describing this as a clear indication that the decision was justified.

“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 to address that, so we believe the cancellation was worth it,” he told the Committee on Monday, January 12.

Dr Asiama acknowledged that the Gold-for-Oil programme was plagued by operational and governance challenges, which necessitated a comprehensive review by the central bank.

He disclosed that the Bank of Ghana’s Board had approved an external audit of the programme to fully uncover the issues associated with its implementation. According to him, approval for the audit was granted by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) two months ago, and the process is currently ongoing.

“There were too many issues under the Gold-for-Oil that needed to be unearthed. As a result, the Board authorised an external audit into the policy, and with PPA approval secured, the exercise is underway,” he explained.

On the Gold-for-Reserves programme, the Governor clarified that the initiative remains an important component of the central bank’s strategy to strengthen Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves.

He stated that available data suggests the programme is still viable, stressing that the focus is not on shutting it down but on addressing inefficiencies to improve its overall effectiveness.

“The objective of Gold-for-Reserves, as the name suggests, is to increase reserves,” Dr Asiama said.

“Based on the data available, the evidence so far shows that this is not a case of shutting it down, but rather enhancing its efficiency by addressing the inefficiencies identified. That is why we went after GoldBod,” he added.