Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Gold prices broke the $3,000 per ounce mark at the close of last week.
00:05Now, the trend is boosted by demand for safe haven assets as investors remain cautious
00:09about President Trump's tariffs and geopolitical shifts.
00:12Well, Nare Miko, Vice-Chairman at Ken Smith Refinery, joins me now to discuss the recent
00:17price uptrend as central banks purchases and expected impact of Ghana's gold board in
00:22streamlining trade and boosting the local currency.
00:26Thanks a lot for joining us on the show today, Nare.
00:28Now, the price rally really puts the description to bear that the yellow metal is the panic
00:34asset of choice at this moment.
00:36What's your take around the momentum so far and how high do you see gold prices even move
00:41further this year?
00:42Yeah.
00:43I think what was interesting is if we go back a little last year, by October, you had actually
00:47seen gold has surpassed the euro as the, should I say, reserve run after the US dollar.
00:55US dollar was number one and then gold surpassed the euro in October.
00:58So you already saw the trend and the central banks were already really very bullish on
01:03gold in January.
01:04I think the central banks bought about 18 tons of gold just in January alone, mostly
01:09emerging markets.
01:10So all of this, you already seen very strong demand and now the, should I say, the tariff
01:16trade wars right now have now pushed gold above, I think about $3,004, almost $3,005
01:24on Friday.
01:25It receded a bit.
01:26Now we're right now, I think, at almost $3,000 again.
01:32The truth is we don't see this retreating.
01:36It's clear if we're looking at this that we're seeing that there's going to be a continued
01:40weakened US dollar.
01:42It makes sense for what's happening with the trade wars.
01:45It also makes sense with the Trump policy of, should I say, wanting a greater America,
01:50wanting American exports.
01:52But I'd like you to give me a number now because according to some houses now, they're expecting
01:57that gold would settle at about the range of $3,150 later this year.
02:01Are you also aligning within this regard?
02:04I actually think that gold will surpass that at some point in time this year.
02:08This is what I'm alluding to with the weakened dollar.
02:10I think there's trade war jitters, but it's very clear that there is an American strategy
02:17this year.
02:18It's clear that they want to be exporting.
02:20They want to make the goods they're importing very expensive so that people buy more American
02:26goods and American exports.
02:28This is really going to affect, should I say, the US dollar hegemony.
02:33Back to what we're saying about central bank and reserve currencies, it's just going to
02:36drive more purchase of gold.
02:39In my case, I think we'll see higher prices eventually than $3,150 this year.
02:44You're shying away from giving me a number.
02:46Yes, I will give you a number, but I think higher.
02:49Talking about market trends at this moment now, we're also seeing emerging market central
02:53banks, like you've also alluded to at this point in time, being at the forefront of net
02:59buying at this moment, Uzbekistan, China, Kazakhstan among the top buyers.
03:03But for African central banks, do you see us moving within this sort of strategy?
03:08I'm happy you say this.
03:09I think African central banks need to go in this direction.
03:12This gives me a little joy when I see Ghana.
03:16Ghana is a mixed bag.
03:17But at least we see with Ghana last year, they added, I think they say about 30 tons
03:20to their reserves.
03:22We need more African currency, African central banks following this trend.
03:27Emerging markets, emerging countries are running to gold, but African countries not so much.
03:31We're more caught up here.
03:32We're trying to get FX for, I guess, to start to trade balances and coal.
03:38But if you look at the mixed bag of what we're saying, if the US dollar is going to continue
03:43weakening and emerging markets are looking at this and running to gold, it doesn't make
03:49sense that African countries who are producing gold are instead looking for dollars when
03:54they should at least balance, leverage on gold.
03:58That's what I think.
03:59Yeah.
04:00And talking about Ghana now in the mix of all of this too, we're also seeing the formation
04:04of this gold board.
04:05We're looking at the allocation of about $279 million put into the establishment of this
04:10and also on the back of the country halting the gold for oil policy, it's revising its
04:16strategies.
04:17Now, this gold board, at the end of the day, the end game is to ensure that we have a streamlined
04:22gold trading, support the local currency and also boost the reserves at this moment.
04:28For you, what do you make of the country's strategy?
04:30I think it's about time that Ghana has gone this way, to have a gold board.
04:36We'll find out a lot more, but here's why it's good.
04:39Having that one body for how much gold Ghana is producing, how much leakages, Ghana has
04:45had, should I say, more opportunities than other countries in Africa to try and get this
04:50right.
04:51Last year, I think they imported about $4.5 billion worth of petroleum products.
04:57But if you look at the reserves and how much gold they had, it was a loss, losses everywhere.
05:02So I think this strategy of having this gold board at Central, it reduces leakages, it
05:07reduces – it allows the Central Bank to take a more traditional role of facing monetary
05:15policy and let the gold board handle this.
05:18So the gold board, yes, will be handling this effort to stabilise the CD with gold, but
05:22also with streamlining exports and refining.
05:26It's almost – well, this is – I'm getting ahead, but if I see what I think they're
05:30trying to do, this, I think, in a way, it allows them to have a streamlined system where
05:36they could say, look, every gold export out of Ghana must be refined.
05:40And talking about how Ghana is moving and juxtaposing that to Nigeria's strategy as
05:45well now, we similarly are taking two different courses at this moment.
05:50But let's focus on critical minerals, your take on the nuances here, how Nigeria is playing
05:56and the posture of the government.
05:57Yes, we've had talks around the reforms and supporting investment.
06:01But do you think we are walking the right direction at this moment in terms of having
06:05the right conversations around critical minerals?
06:10I would say yes.
06:13For critical minerals –
06:14You're hesitant.
06:15I hesitate, yeah.
06:16But, you know, why I pause is, you see, the thing about Nigeria, we're very early.
06:20Nigeria is not quite a major mining destination.
06:22How much lithium are we producing?
06:26So we're still, should I say, an exploration country.
06:29Yes, there's huge potential.
06:31The reserves are notable, but we're not quite producing.
06:35So in that regard, I take a cautious approach, because back to revenue and these kinds of
06:43issues, it's very early.
06:45But if we're having a commodity that could right now be a game-changer or affect economic
06:53policy, those are the things that I think that the country should focus on quickly moving
06:58on.
06:59But for now, critical minerals, I think it's right that they're having those discussions,
07:02planning the reforms towards when the production really comes on stream.
07:07Well, we'd have to leave the conversation here for now.
07:09Thank you so much for your time on the show today.
07:11That was Neremiko, Vice-Chairman at Kean Smith Refinery.