Bright Simons Warns Bank of Ghana Over Heavy Forex Intervention

Bright Simons, vice president of policy think tank IMANI Africa, has cautioned the Bank of Ghana that its aggressive intervention in the foreign-exchange market could become unsustainable unless it sets clearly defined limits aligned with real economic conditions.

The Details

Speaking on Channel One TV's The Point of View on May 4, Simons said he had personally urged the Bank of Ghana to model a realistic and clearly defined level of intervention. He warned that claims of unlimited capacity to intervene in the forex market are not credible.

Context

Simons' remarks came amid public debate over the Bank of Ghana's 2025 financial statements, which Ghana's parliamentary majority defended by pointing to gains in reserve levels and cedi stability. According to the defense, the cedi appreciated 41 percent in 2025, gross international reserves rose from $9.1 billion at the end of 2024 to $13.8 billion at the end of 2025, and then reached $14.5 billion by February 2026. The parliamentary majority also said the central bank accumulated about 111 tonnes of gold in 2025 through its gold purchase programme. However, the defense acknowledged the costs involved: the Bank of Ghana's liquidity mop-up costs rose from GH¢8.6 billion in 2024 to GH¢16.7 billion in 2025. A member of parliament, Mr Attah-Issah, defended the figures by saying, 'The cost was real, and the result was real as well.' Simons argued that building reserves through gold purchases may become difficult to sustain if the central bank needs ever more dollars for intervention. He added that in other markets, portraying unlimited intervention capacity could signal that the Bank of Ghana is vulnerable to attack, because such claims are not credible. The parliamentary majority also argued that the Bank of Ghana's negative equity position predates 2025 and is tied largely to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, rather than solely to 2025 intervention costs. A Business & Financial Times report described the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme as a strategic reserve-building tool, indicating that the broader debate is about sustainability and trade-offs rather than whether intervention occurred at all.

What's Next

The debate sets up a policy question for the Bank of Ghana about whether it will clarify the limits and guidance around its forex intervention strategy, or continue the current posture amid pressure from analysts like Simons.