Benishangul-Gumuz Is Coordinating to Deliver 12,928 Kilograms of Gold to the Central Bank

Benishangul-Gumuz is coordinating to deposit 12,928 kilograms of gold with the National Bank of Ethiopia over the current Ethiopian fiscal year, the regional government has said.

Ado Yeene, head of the Regional Communications Bureau, told Fana Digital that work is under way to raise gold production toward that figure, and that coal, marble and granite deposits have also been identified across the region.

Why the National Bank counts kilograms

Gold delivered to the central bank is not a mining statistic. It is a foreign-exchange statistic. Artisanal and small-scale output routed through the NBE converts directly into reserves, which is why the bank has spent years adjusting the premium it pays producers to keep metal inside the formal channel rather than across a border.

Nearly 13 tonnes from a single region is therefore a reserves target as much as a production target, and it will be met or missed on the same variable that has always decided it: whether the price the NBE offers beats what a producer can get informally.

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Open

The region has not published last year's delivery figure, so the target cannot be read as an increase or a hold. Nor has it said how much of the 12,928kg is expected from artisanal miners versus licensed operations, or what the current NBE purchase premium is.

Sources: Fana Television, 21 September 2026, Fana Television, 21 September 2026, Fana Television, 21 September 2026