By Adnan Adams Mohammed
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has released its 2025 annual financial statements, detailing a net loss of GH¢15.6 billion.
While the figure represents an increase from the GH¢9.4 billion loss recorded in 2024, central bank officials characterize the result as the “audited cost of restoring price stability” a price paid to pull the national economy back from the brink of collapse.
In a press briefing following the release, the Bank emphasized that its performance must be judged by its statutory mandate to maintain price and financial stability, rather than by the profit-making standards of commercial companies.
The anatomy of a recovery
The 2025 financial results reflect a year of aggressive intervention. Three core policy drivers accounted for the headline costs:
Crushing Inflation: The Bank spent GHc16.7 billion on Open Market Operations (OMO) to absorb excess liquidity. This intervention successfully drove inflation down from a peak of 54.1% to 3.2% by March 2026, marking 15 consecutive months of decline.
Building Record Reserves: The Bank’s gold purchase programme accumulated approximately 111 tonnes of gold in 2025, up from less than a tonne in 2021. This helped push total international reserves to US$14.5 billion by February 2026 the highest in Ghana’s history. The accounting cost of this scale-up was GHc9 billion.
Cedi Appreciation: In a dramatic reversal of prior years, the cedi gained 41% in value in 2025, becoming the strongest emerging market currency in the world that year. However, this strength triggered a non-cash accounting charge of GHc19.32 billion, as the cedi value of the Bank’s foreign-denominated holdings decreased on the books.
The “DDEP” legacy and negative equity
The Bank addressed its cumulative negative equity position of GHc96.3 billion, tracing its origins to the 2022 Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
The DDEP, a national strategy to restore debt sustainability following years of economic distress, involved a 50% “haircut” on the Bank’s holdings of government debt. This restructuring continues to affect the Bank’s financials, reducing its annual interest income by approximately GHc13 billion.
Normalizing the loss
Central bank officials noted that Ghana is not an outlier in this regard. The European Central Bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve have both reported significant losses in recent years while fighting global inflationary pressures.
“The Bank’s authority comes from law, not from its balance sheet,” the briefing noted, reassuring the public that the results do not affect the BoG’s ability to implement monetary policy or supervise the financial system.
Looking ahead: Why the trend will shift
The Bank projects that the 2025 result represents a peak. Four factors are expected to improve the financial outlook for 2026 and beyond:
Lower Liquidity Costs: With inflation at 3.2%, the large “monetary overhang” has been cleared, reducing the cost of OMO operations.
Rate Reductions: The policy rate cut from 27% to 14% means new liquidity operations cost roughly half what they did a year ago.
GANRAP Implementation: The new Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Policy (GANRAP) will shift the financing structure of gold purchases, moving the accounting impact off the Bank’s books.
Cedi Stability: With the currency expected to remain stable at its new stronger level, the massive revaluation charges seen in 2025 are unlikely to recur.
“The financial results reflect the mechanics of stabilizing an economy that was under significant stress,” the Bank concluded. “Every cost has a name, an economic explanation, and an outcome that benefited ordinary Ghanaians”.
