Economist and political risk specialist Dr Theo Acheampong, now Technical Advisor at the Ministry of Finance, says Ghana’s gold windfall presents a clear opportunity to build economic strength — and the data shows why.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Monday, he pointed to strong numbers linking gold performance to Ghana’s external buffers.
“Of course, gold has been at historical all-time highs,” he said regarding government’s Reserve accumulation policy.
He noted that forecasts from major investment banks, multilateral institutions and internal projections at the Ministry all suggest the favourable trend could continue.
“Everything indicates that you’re likely to still have this tail right wind that you can actually leverage on for the next two to three years.”
For him, the critical question is how Ghana uses the moment.
“So the idea really is that okay, what do you do to actually take advantage of the potential high prices that we have seen in relative historical terms, to build a buffer, or, as we put it, to build a war chest.”
He was quick to clarify the purpose of such a build-up.
“Now you’re building the war chest, not the reserves. It is not a means or an end in and of itself. It’s a means to an end.”
That end, he explained, is macroeconomic stability.
“The end really being that you’re able to support your currency, support your economy, and ultimately, right translate that into jobs.”
Dr Acheampong said the relationship between gold and Ghana’s external strength is not speculative. It is supported by analysis.
“If you look at the data, and then I’ve been, we’ve been doing some sort of work right around this.”
He outlined the variables examined.
“So you can actually take the gold data, take our gross international reserves, take inflation, take exchange rate, and then do some sort of correlation and even causality analysis.”
He then broke down the key finding.
“Just to be maybe a little technical and try to explain the relationship between gold and our gross international reserves, the correlation there is actually positive.”
He quantified it.
“The coefficient is about 0.64.”
That figure, he suggested, is significant. It shows that as gold performance strengthens, Ghana’s gross international reserves tend to improve as well.
His argument rests on this positive correlation. High gold prices are not just headline gains. They can translate into stronger reserves, he said.
Stronger reserves can help stabilise the currency. And currency stability can ease inflationary pressure and support economic growth.
