Ghana’s Minister for Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has unveiled an ambitious plan to significantly raise the country’s foreign exchange buffers, targeting import cover of 15 months by the close of 2028 under a newly introduced accelerated reserve build-up programme.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, February 25, the Minister said the initiative is intended to preserve macroeconomic stability and drive long-term structural reforms.

He stressed that expanding Ghana’s reserve cushion would better position the economy to absorb global and domestic shocks. Dr Forson disclosed that as of the end of 2025, Ghana’s gross international reserves were equivalent to 5.7 months of import cover — leaving a shortfall of 9.3 months to achieve the 15-month objective.

To close that gap, government plans to increase reserves by an average of 3.1 months of import cover each year over the next three years. He further explained that the policy will be anchored on the operations of the Ghana Gold Board, with a projected interim target of lifting reserves to no less than 8.6 months of import cover by the end of 2026.

“To achieve the reserve accumulation target, the GANRAP has set an operational weekly gold purchase target of approximately 3.02 tonnes. At 3.02 tonnes per week and a price of US$5,000 per ounce, annual gross receipts are projected at approximately US$25.28 billion. Ghana’s strategy for the acquisition of the 3.02 tonnes of gold per week is twofold,” he said.