Let us put the facts on the table. The cedi is strengthening today because the NDC government is applying an NPP-designed policy: Gold for Reserves and Gold for Forex.
After months of denial, the Minority and IMF disclosures forced the truth into the open: the appreciation is driven by deliberate forex injections, made possible only because the NDC quietly continued the NPP’s gold-anchored strategy.
They denied it all year
They mocked it in opposition and even petitioned the then Governor of the Bank of Ghana, pushing for his removal. This was led by Ato Forson, the then Minority Leader, who is today praising Sammy Gyamfi and the GoldBod for bringing stability to the local currency, the Cedi. They are now living off the NPP initiative in government.
The crisis the NPP refused to waste
The NPP introduced Gold for Oil, Gold for Reserves, and Gold for Forex at the most hostile economic moment in Ghana’s modern history.
The COVID shock, the Russia-Ukraine war, a balance-of-payments crisis, a debt default, an IMF programme, and for the first time in the Fourth Republic, a split Parliament with an opposition Speaker and rejected budgets and tax-revenue measures, which got investors panicking and forcing them to sell off their cedi bonds forcing a major run on the currency. Ghana had no choice but to run to the IMF.
Yet even under siege, the NPP chose reform over panic. The NOP showed leadership under crisis, showing that necessity is the mother of invention.
As Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia explained at the NPP Manifesto Launch on 19 August 2024, the vulnerability of Ghana’s economic structure, exposed brutally by the 2020–2022 global crisis, required an unconventional solution. Industrialisation remains the long-term answer, but the immediate danger was foreign-exchange collapse.
That danger was averted through a bold idea
“I proposed that we leverage the gold we produce directly in exchange for the essential goods we import. President Akufo-Addo gave me the go-ahead to pilot it, starting with petroleum products — the shortage of which would have completely derailed our economy.”
That is why, unlike in previous crises, there were no fuel queues, no paralysis, no national breakdown.
The two policies that saved the economy
Dr. Bawumia was explicit:
“The two policies that helped rescue the economy from catastrophe were the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme and the Gold-for-Oil programme.”
These pilots worked, not in theory, but in practice:
• They stabilised fuel supply
• Solved profit repatriation pressures
• Boosted investor confidence
• And, crucially, prevented forex demand from collapsing the cedi.
From that success came the next step: Gold for Forex.
“From the success of the pilot scheme, we can confidently say we have found a solution to the age-old foreign exchange problem that successive governments have struggled to contain,” Bawumia announced on 19 August 2024 in Takoradi.
That “solution” is exactly what the NDC is using today.
But, how come Ghanaians are seeing the results better now under the NDC?
The NDC did not invent this stability. They inherited a policy that had already been tested under fire. The reset they spoke of was merely to rebrand the policy under a new entity, GoldBod, and use the lessons learnt from the NPP pilot scheme.
What they are doing now and doing successfully is scaling and applying an NPP blueprint in a calmer post-crisis environment.
That is the difference. The NPP designed and piloted the cure in the middle of the storm. The NDC is administering it in fairer weather.
And the proof of authorship is in the numbers.
“Gold purchases alone have amounted to over $5 billion in the last couple of years,” Bawumia said in 2024.
The logic is simple and revolutionary:
“If a company wants dollars, we take their cedis, buy gold, and give them dollars. Demand equals supply.”
That is why Dr. Bawumia concluded:
“The gold purchase program will provide the anchor that our local currency has always lacked.”
The same political tradition, from PNDC days, associated with the worst currency depreciation in Ghana’s history is now being celebrated for stabilising the cedi using an NPP-designed framework. That is the irony the NDC cannot escape from.
They campaigned on a 24-hour economy. They abandoned it instantly. And, quickly adopted the NPP manifesto. In fact the only clear policy move the John Mahama administration was clear and quick in implementing with gusto was the law to set up the GoldBod!
The NDC may be implementing the policy. But the NPP conceived it, tested it, and proved it under the hardest conditions imaginable.
History will not remember who enjoyed the calm. It will remember who found the cure to Ghana’s most persistent economic disease, currency instability.
And, that credit belongs squarely to the New Patriotic Party.
Let me end with what Dr Bawumia said on 19 August 2024 at the 2024 NPP Manifesto launch in order to get a fuller appreciation of the policy:
“STABILIZING THE CEDI THROUGH THE GOLD PURCHASE PROGRAM
“Ladies and Gentlemen, recognising the need to transform the structure of the Ghanaian economy from merely being an exporter of raw materials and importer of finished products to producing what we consume and adding value to our raw materials and farm produce, the Akufo-Addo-led government set out in 2017 to find solutions by introducing transformational policies such as 1D1F.
“While industrialisation remains the long-term solution for macroeconomic stability and shared prosperity for Ghanaians, the vulnerabilities in the structure of the Ghanaian economy remain and were heavily exposed by the global crisis of 2020-2022.
“That crisis hit us really hard, but you may wonder why, unlike previous times when the cedi faced severe pressure, this time we never once experienced queues at our fuel filling stations (as we saw as recently as in 2015).
“Let me tell you a short story on that. I approached my boss and suggested a novel way as a solution to the shortage of foreign exchange. I proposed that we leverage on
the gold we produce directly in exchange for the essential goods we import. He gave me the go-ahead to pilot with the one critical import, petroleum products, the shortage of which would have completely derailed our economy.
“I am happy to say that the two policies that helped rescue the economy from catastrophe in the recent crisis were the Bank of Ghana’s domestic gold purchase program and the Gold For Oil (G4O) program.
The pilot has worked for a number of companies, some of which wanted to forex to repatriate profits. We have, thus, found a solution to profit reparation problem without destabilising our local currency.
This also brings major comfort to foreign investors operating in our country. I believe from the success of the pilot scheme, we can confidently say that we have found a solution to the age-old foreign exchange problem that successive governments have struggled to contain, and which invariably led to inflation and other macro-economic challenges.
“My government will completely institutionalize what I will call Gold-for-Forex program even as we intensify efforts to transform the structure of the Ghanaian economy. Simply put, the domestic gold purchase program (DGPP) is a policy which allows the Bank of Ghana to boost its foreign exchange reserves by buying locally produced gold with cedis.
Gold purchases from this program alone have amounted to $5 billion in the last couple of years. With Ghana’s unexplored gold reserves estimated at 5 billion ounces (and a market value today of $10 trillion dollars), my government will ramp up the gold purchase program to cover all major forex demands.
Put simply, if for example a company wants dollars, we will take their cedis, buy gold, and give them dollars. In this situation demand equals supply. The gold purchase program will, therefore, provide the anchor that our local currency has always lacked.”
Nana Yaw Asare
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