Former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and Member of Parliament for Damongo, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has defended the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP), crediting former Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia with conceiving the policy.
Mr Jinapor’s comments come in response to recent remarks by Dr Bawumia, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, while addressing members of the Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners.
Mr Jinapor, who was the Minister responsible for Mines when the programme was introduced, said it was conceived by Dr Bawumia during the economic difficulties that followed the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
According to him, Dr Bawumia, who was then head of the Economic Management Team, held strategic meetings with relevant stakeholders and directed the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to engage stakeholders before the programme was formally launched on June 17, 2021, at the then head office of the Bank of Ghana.
He said the programme marked the first time the government had purchased gold domestically to strengthen the country’s gold reserves and augment its foreign exchange reserves.
Under the programme, the Bank of Ghana purchased gold locally from licensed aggregators and mining companies and paid them in Ghana cedis at the prevailing market price.
Gold reserves
Mr Jinapor said Ghana had 8.77 tonnes of gold reserves when the programme was launched. Although the Bank of Ghana’s initial target was to double the reserves within five years, the target was exceeded, with the country’s gold reserves increasing to 30.53 tonnes by December 2024 — less than four years after the programme was introduced.
He said the Ministry subsequently 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), in November 2023.
The move resulted in policy directives requiring large-scale mining companies to sell 20% of their refined gold to the Bank of Ghana in Ghana cedis before exporting the remainder. Community Mining Schemes and licensed small-scale miners were required to sell their gold to the government through the then Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC).
Mr Jinapor said the measures were deliberately targeted at licensed and responsible small-scale miners to ensure that illegally sourced gold was excluded from the programme. The directives were coordinated and enforced by the Minerals Commission, PMMC and the Bank of Ghana, with support from the Ghana Chamber of Mines and the Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners.
Gold exports
Mr Jinapor also cited Ghana’s gold export figures as evidence that the measures did not prevent the country from recording strong export performance. He said gold exports reached a record US$11.6 billion in 2024, compared with US$7.6 billion in 2023 and US$6.6 billion in 2022.
He further argued that the reserves accumulated through the DGPP had become an important component of Ghana’s economic stability. According to him, Bank of Ghana Governor Dr Johnson Asiama, speaking at the 77th Annual New Year School and Conference at the University of Ghana in January 2026, said the programme had strengthened the country’s external buffers and contributed to the central bank’s macroeconomic stabilisation efforts.
Mr Jinapor also took issue with the government’s Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Policy (GANARAP), describing it as a renamed version of the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme. He alleged that the renamed policy had resulted in the sale of more than half of the gold accumulated under the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration.
Mr Jinapor said the public record should reflect that the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, which significantly increased the Bank of Ghana’s gold reserves and contributed to the national economy, was conceived by Dr Bawumia.
