HARARE — A historic surge in gold prices has delivered significant currency support to Ghana and Zimbabwe, underscoring a broader shift by African states and the wider Global South towards gold accumulation as a strategic buffer against International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditionalities, Western financial dominance, and dollar dependency.
According to Bloomberg, Ghana’s cedi recorded a remarkable 41 percent gain against the US dollar in 2025, marking its first annual appreciation since at least 1994. This performance positioned the cedi as the strongest currency among 144 tracked globally, second only to the Russian rouble. Analysts attribute the rally largely to rising gold prices, as investors and central banks increasingly turned to bullion as a safe store of value amid mounting geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
Gold prices reached successive record highs during the year as tensions in global trade, persistent inflationary pressures, and geopolitical realignments pushed both states and investors away from fiat currencies. Central banks across Africa, Asia, and Eurasia—particularly in China and Russia—have accelerated gold purchases as part of a long-term de-dollarisation strategy.
In Ghana, the central bank significantly expanded its bullion holdings, lifting gross international reserves by 24 percent to US$11.4 billion by October. In a parallel policy move, the government established GoldBod in May to purchase gold directly from small-scale miners. The initiative has helped formalise artisanal production, curb smuggling, and channel output into official reserves. In the third quarter alone, GoldBod exported more than 25,700 kilograms of gold, marginally exceeding exports from large-scale mining operations.
Zimbabwe has followed a similar path. The global gold rally, combined with a deliberate build-up of foreign exchange and bullion reserves, has stabilised the country’s gold-backed currency, the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG). The ZiG traded at 25.98 per US dollar this week, its strongest level since early January, according to Bloomberg data.
Introduced in April 2024, the ZiG represents Zimbabwe’s latest attempt to anchor monetary stability after decades of currency volatility. Unlike previous iterations, the currency is explicitly backed by 2.5 tonnes of gold and approximately US$100 million in foreign currency reserves held by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. In 2025, the ZiG depreciated by just 0.7 percent against the dollar—a stark contrast to the chronic instability that previously defined Zimbabwe’s monetary system.
Across the continent, gold is increasingly being positioned not merely as a commodity, but as a strategic monetary asset. The African Export–Import Bank and the Central Bank of Egypt recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish an African Gold Bank in Egypt, aimed at formalising gold value chains, strengthening central bank reserves, and reducing Africa’s dependence on Western refining, trading, and pricing centres.
For Zimbabwe, Ghana, and many other Global South economies, the renewed embrace of gold reflects a recalibration of monetary sovereignty—one that aligns with the rise of multipolarism and challenges the long-standing dominance of the US dollar in global finance.
