Abu Jinapor highlights increased gold exports after Domestic Gold Purchase Programme

Former Lands and Natural Resources Minister Samuel Abdulai Jinapor has highlighted Ghana’s significant gold export earnings in 2024 as evidence of the impact of policies introduced under the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme. Mr Jinapor, who is now the Member of Parliament for Damongo, said the government introduced a series of measures to strengthen the programme and ensure that gold produced by licensed operators contributed directly to Ghana’s reserves and foreign exchange position. He said the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources engaged the Ghana Chamber of Mines and the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners before invoking the government’s pre-emptory right under Section 7 of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703).

According to him, directives issued in November 2023 required large-scale mining companies to sell 20 per cent of their refined gold to the Bank of Ghana in Ghana cedis before exporting the remainder. He said Community Mining Schemes and licensed small-scale miners were also required to sell their gold to the government through the then Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), with the relevant licences containing clauses to that effect. Mr Jinapor said the measures were deliberately focused on licensed and responsible small-scale miners because the government did not want illegally sourced gold to enter the programme.

He said the Minerals Commission, PMMC and Bank of Ghana coordinated and enforced the directives with support from the Ghana Chamber of Mines and the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners. He also noted that the government subsequently directed the Minerals Commission and PMMC not to process gold export licence applications without the express written approval of the Minister. The measures, Mr Jinapor said, resulted in Ghana’s gold exports reaching US$11.6 billion in 2024, compared with US$7.6 billion in 2023 and US$6.6 billion in 2022.

He argued that the figures demonstrated the importance of the gold sector to Ghana’s economy and the effectiveness of measures introduced to strengthen domestic gold purchasing and reserve accumulation. The Damongo MP also maintained that the reserves accumulated through the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme had become an important pillar of Ghana’s economy. Citing Bank of Ghana Governor Dr Johnson Asiama, Mr Jinapor said the programme had “strengthened external b…

Mr Jinapor, who is also the Member of Parliament for Damongo, said the programme was conceived by Dr Bawumia at a time Ghana was facing severe economic difficulties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. In a Facebook post on Monday, August 31, 2026, he said Dr Bawumia, then Head of the Economic Management Team, held strategic meetings with relevant stakeholders before directing the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to engage stakeholders ahead of the programme’s formal launch on June 17, 2021. According to Mr Jinapor, the programme represented a major departure from Ghana’s previous approach to accumulating gold reserves.

He explained that while the country had purchased gold from abroad when it sought to increase its reserves in 1960, the new programme allowed the Bank of Ghana to purchase gold locally from licensed aggregators and mining companies, paying them the Ghana cedi equivalent of the prevailing market price. He said the programme had also significantly increased Ghana’s gold reserves, which stood at 8.77 tonnes when it was launched. “Even though the Bank of Ghana’s target was to double this figure in five (5) years, as at December 2024, less than four (4) years into the implementation of this consequential Programme, the Bank of Ghana had almost quadrupled their reserves, from 8.77 tonnes to 30.53 tonnes,” he said.