- Senyo Hosi Says BoG’s Loss Bought Ghana Stability
The Bank of Ghana’s reported GH¢15.6 billion loss for 2025 should not be interpreted as a sign of economic failure, but as the financial cost of delivering one of Ghana’s most significant macroeconomic stabilisation turnarounds in recent years, according to Entrepreneur and Finance Policy Analyst Senyo Kwasi Hosi.
In a commentary titled “The BoG Loss That Saved the Economy,” Mr Hosi said public debate had focused too narrowly on the headline loss while ignoring the policy outcomes that followed the central bank’s actions.
“The speed with which we criticise should match the speed with which we acknowledge success,” he wrote.
According to him, the Bank of Ghana’s 2025 financial results were dominated by three policy-related costs: GH¢16.7 billion in open market operations interest costs to absorb excess liquidity, GH¢9.1 billion in Domestic Gold Purchase Programme costs to build reserves, and GH¢29.1 billion in foreign exchange revaluation charges arising from the stronger cedi.
“These are not commercial losses. They are policy costs; the price of reversing years of fiscal slippages and monetary expansion,” Mr Hosi argued.
He said central banks are not profit-maximising institutions, but policy institutions mandated to stabilise prices, protect the currency and maintain confidence in the financial system.
“When they act forcefully to restore stability, the financial statements reflect the cost of those actions. But the economic value created far exceeds the accounting charge,” he said.
Mr Hosi argued that the Bank of Ghana had little room to avoid aggressive action, given the scale of the fiscal and liquidity pressures that confronted the economy entering 2025.
He noted that Ghana entered the year with a 3.1 per cent of gross domestic product fiscal deviation, representing more than GH¢36 billion in overspending. According to him, that slippage was equivalent to the entire IMF programme loan at current exchange rates and had flooded the banking system with excess liquidity.
The clearest evidence of the central bank’s policy impact, he said, was the collapse in reserve money growth and the sharp fall in inflation.
Mr Hosi cited Bank of Ghana and Ghana Statistical Service data showing that reserve money growth fell from 104.5 per cent in late 2024 to 2.6 per cent by December 2025. Inflation, he added, declined for 13 consecutive months, from 23.8 per cent to 5.4 per cent, and further to 3.2 per cent by March 2026.
“This is the clearest demonstration of decisive monetary policy in action,” he said.
He described open market operations as the central bank’s most powerful anti-inflation tool during the period. By issuing instruments to withdraw excess liquidity from the system, the Bank engineered a sharp slowdown in reserve money growth and helped break inflationary pressure.
“The GH¢16.7 billion OMO cost was therefore not a loss; it was an investment and it paid off,” he argued.
Mr Hosi also pushed back against criticism of the foreign exchange revaluation charge, arguing that it was an accounting effect rather than a cash loss.
He said the cedi’s 40.7 per cent appreciation in 2025 reduced the Ghana cedi value of the Bank’s foreign assets, creating a GH¢29.1 billion accounting charge. But he stressed that no reserves were lost and no cash left the central bank.
“In simpler terms, while in 2024, every US$100 on the financials was booked as GH¢1,470, the same US$100 was now booked as GH¢1,045 because the cedi strengthened. The US$100 remained the same but in cedi terms, GH¢425 was lost; a paper loss,” he explained.
He further defended the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme, arguing that its GH¢9.1 billion cost must be weighed against the reserve gains it produced.
According to him, Ghana’s reserves rose from US$9.1 billion to US$13.8 billion, import cover reached 5.7 months, and the programme expanded to 111 metric tonnes of gold in 2025. He said the programme was a strategic investment in resilience and contributed to the strong appreciation of the cedi.
The broader economic gains, Mr Hosi argued, were substantial. He cited single-digit inflation, about 40 per cent cedi appreciation, more than GH¢60 billion in import-cost savings for households and firms, more than GH¢12 billion in savings on government foreign exchange-linked expenses, a decline in public debt from 61.8 per cent to 45.3 per cent of gross domestic product, record reserves, lower lending rates and renewed confidence in the currency.
For Mr Hosi, the Bank of Ghana’s 2025 loss was therefore not evidence of institutional weakness, but proof that the central bank used its balance sheet to restore stability at a critical moment.
“The Bank of Ghana’s 2025 loss is not evidence of mismanagement. It is evidence of a central bank doing exactly what its mandate requires: stabilising the economy, restoring confidence, and protecting the value of money,” he said.
He added that Governor Johnson Asiama and his deputies, Dr Zakari Mumuni and Matilda Asante-Asiedu, deserved recognition for what he described as the boldness and discipline behind the turnaround.
