The world market price for gold is surging as demand increases for the mineral resource amidst growing geopolitical concerns and the effect of the US government shutdown on its economy. Spot gold has seen a sharp rise breaking the $4,000 an ounce mark for the first time, with the value of the precious metal shot up by 50% this year. Bloomberg reports that, “bullion climbed as much as 1.4% to a new peak of $4,040.41 an ounce on Wednesday”; gold has seen a quiet rise in price from $1,000 an ounce in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, $2,000 during the COVID-19 pandemic and $3,000 as the second wave of US government tariff swept the world in March 2025.
Ghana, Africa’s top producer of gold, begun an aggressive purchase of the precious metal in 2022 with Ghana Chamber of Mines selling about 125,000 ounces to the Bank of Ghana as of September that year. The new governor of the central bank continued the programme under a new arrangement early 2025 as part of efforts to build up international reserves of the Bank, and the newly established Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) also streamlined the process in terms of licencing and direct purchases among others. As of August 2025, the West African country added 36 tonnes to its gold holdings valued at $3,166.7 million increasing from $1304.8 million recorded in March 2024 where total gold reserve stood at 20.6 tonnes. The Bank of Ghana’s decision to store more gold is not different from other central banks globally which have also resorted to buying gold as heightened geopolitical tensions have boosted demand for haven assets this year.
Furthermore, the continuous rally of gold was largely influenced by central banks transitioning from being net sellers to net buyers after the global financial crisis. However, the pace of buying doubled in the aftermath of sweeping new sanctions including the freezing of Russia’s foreign-exchange reserves by the US and its allies in 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine. That act by western powers got central banks to rethink policy with gold being the safest bet against uncertainty. Analysts have predicted that gold will “reach a cyclical peak” with US-based Goldman Sachs Group forecasting the price of gold to go up further to $4,900 an ounce from $4,300 by December 2026.
Ghana also faces risk of environmental contamination due to the activities of illegal miners or “galamsayers” whose actions have polluted water bodies and poisoned the soil in the areas where their mining take place. The government has taken action on the backs of growing public backlash for a lack of decisive measures in stopping ‘galamsay’ and arresting perpetrators. The fight against galamsay led to the formation of anti-illegal mining task force separate from the GoldBod’s special taskforce against the menace, and recent declaration of all forest reserves as security zones by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has intensified the fight with establishment of a Base of Operations in each of the forest reserves for personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces.
For the government, seeing gold rally and the danger of galamsay on the environment presents it a dilemma of which a decision has to be made taking into consideration the future of Ghanaians. Meanwhile, cocoa, a major earner of Ghana whose survival is under threat by galamsay will be selling at GH¢3,228.75 per bag and GH¢51,660 ($5,040) per tonne during the 2025/2026 season. The new producer price of cocoa represents 70% of the average Gross FOB price of $7,200 per tonne.