Ghana expects its state gold trading and regulatory body to generate $1.4bn in foreign exchange in September, with $700mn earmarked for commercial banks and up to another $700mn for the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to build reserves.

The September target follows the first full month of GoldBod’s new financing model for artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) gold, launched on August 3.

GoldBod said it generated $1.315bn in foreign exchange in August, including $668.21mn sold to commercial banks through spot sales and funded forward arrangements and $646.59mn channelled to the BoG for reserves.

The September target, if achieved, would represent an increase of about 6.5% from August.

The flows are becoming an important part of Ghana’s attempt to strengthen its foreign exchange market as it seeks to rebuild reserve buffers following its debt crisis.

Gross international reserves stood at $12.9bn at end-June 2026, equivalent to about 5.0 months of import cover, according to the Bank of Ghana. That was down from $13.8bn, or 5.7 months of import cover, at end-2025.

Under the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Policy (GANRAP), the government is targeting reserves equivalent to 8.6 months of import cover by end-2026 and 15 months by end-2028.

The policy was developed following consultations involving GoldBod, the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Ghana, commercial banks and other market participants. It is intended to build external buffers increasingly from domestic resources, including gold, rather than relying heavily on foreign borrowing.

GoldBod stopped acting as a BoG-funded gold-buying agent in March 2026 and moved to a self-funded model before launching the new collaborative financing arrangement on August 3.

For investors, the significance lies in whether GoldBod can provide a durable source of foreign exchange liquidity while helping the central bank rebuild buffers against external shocks.

GoldBod has broad authority over Ghana’s gold trading industry and is central to government efforts to formalise the ASM sector, which has historically been vulnerable to informal trading and smuggling.