The Africa Policy Lens has criticised government’s decision to diversify Ghana’s gold reserves and its reported plan to purchase more gold for Ghana’s reserves as reckless and potentially costly to the state.

The policy think tank says it has concerns about what it describes as the depletion of Ghana’s gold reserves, which it says stood at 37.06 tonnes in 2025 but have since fallen to 18.06 tonnes.

Speaking at a media engagement, a research fellow with the organisation, Edem Gormashie, said the country could incur significant losses if it attempts to buy back the same amount of gold.

According to him, based on the difference between the price at which the gold was sold and current market prices, Ghana could face losses of between $700 million and $1.2 billion to repurchase the same quantity.

“Today, the gold price is $5,180 per ounce. Let us round it to $5,200. According to multiple analyses, gold price may end 2026 by $5,500. Some are even predicting $6,000, and we are not going to buy the gold today because the government doesn’t have the money to buy it today.

So we are going to take it over the year or even up to 2027. Should the government decide to buy this gold now, at an average price of $5,200 to $6,000 per ounce, the average gold price there is around $5,567 per ounce.

“It means that if Ghana is buying the exact 19.4 ton bag, we will be spending about $3.4 billion. If you want to juxtapose that amount with the amount at which we sold it, the state is losing between $700 million to $1.2 billion, and it is going to be paid not by the leaders but by you and I,” he said.