Bank of Tanzania sells about five tonnes of gold from reserves, governor says

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has sold about five tonnes of gold from its reserves after judging international prices favourable, Governor Emmanuel Tutuba said, as quoted by The Citizen on 10 October 2026. The paper said the bank's Monetary Policy Committee met on 7 October.

The bank held about 35.4 tonnes before the sale and has about 30 tonnes left, according to The Citizen. The newspaper said the gold was sold at about US$4,640 an ounce, and that prices later fell, so the bank kept the rest of its holdings. The state-owned Daily News also quoted Tutuba as saying the holdings were 35.4 tonnes before the sale.

Tutuba described the sale as part of a reserve management strategy in which the bank buys and sells according to market conditions, The Citizen reported. He said specialists in the bank's markets department monitor prices continuously.

"We had conducted our analysis and, when we saw that the prices were favourable, we sold," Tutuba said, as quoted by The Citizen. According to the paper, he said the strategy is meant to strengthen foreign-exchange reserves, support the domestic gold value chain and stabilise the shilling.

The Daily News quoted him as saying: "If the price is favourable, we sell on any given day."

The Daily News reported that the central bank began buying gold for its reserves around 2023. In September 2024, it said, the mining regulator required gold miners and traders exporting the metal to sell at least 20 per cent of their output to the central bank.

Foreign-exchange reserves were above US$6 billion in September, enough to cover 4.3 months of imports, against a national minimum of four months, according to The Citizen. The Daily News gave the same figures.