Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has unveiled the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Policy (GANRAP) for 2026 to 2028 — the country’s first comprehensive national policy specifically designed to build foreign exchange reserves and entrench long-term macroeconomic stability.
The policy targets gross international reserves of at least 4.5 months of import cover by end-2028, up from approximately 3.1 months at end-2025. It also commits to building Ghana’s gold reserves to 50 tonnes — more than double the current level.
The Five Pillars of GANRAP
- Domestic gold purchase programme — the Bank of Ghana will continue and expand its mandatory purchase of a percentage of small-scale and large-scale mine output, paid in cedis
- Mineral royalties FX retention — a fixed share of mining royalties is retained in foreign currency rather than converted
- Sovereign wealth account — anchored to the Petroleum Holding Fund framework, but expanded to non-oil minerals
- Diaspora bond programme — annual issuance targeting US$500 million in diaspora-denominated reserves
- Trade FX surrender — calibrated FX surrender requirements on cocoa and gold export earnings
Why Now
Ghana’s reserve buffer was a central weakness in the 2022 debt crisis — when import cover fell below one month, the cedi collapsed and the country defaulted. GANRAP is a structural fix designed to prevent that scenario from ever recurring.
“We will never again be in a position where one external shock takes the country to the brink,” Forson told Parliament. “Reserves are not a luxury — they are the cost of monetary sovereignty.”
Cedi Backdrop
The announcement comes as the cedi posts its best Q1 performance in five years — losing only 4.4 percent against the dollar in the first three months of 2026, compared with double-digit declines in 2022 and 2023. The interbank rate firmed to GH¢11.02 to the dollar on April 17.
Reaction
The IMF resident representative welcomed GANRAP as fully consistent with the Extended Credit Facility programme. The World Bank described it as a model that other commodity-exporting African economies should study. Opposition spokespersons cautioned that delivery, not design, will determine the policy’s legacy.
Source: Ministry of Finance / Bank of Ghana
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