Algeria’s Gold Reserves held by the country’s Central Bank is the highest in Africa with 173.56 tonnes in the first quarter of 2022, a report by the World Gold Council has revealed.
Apart from the gold reserves held by The Bank of Algeria, the North African country is also blessed with the most precious metal (gold).
For instance, there are deposits of gold in the Amessmessa mine estimated to be about 70 metric tons, which can be found about 60km to the south of the Tirek gold mine.
In the second position is South Africa. Apart from being home to a lot of parks including the famous Addo elephant park, SA was blessed with 125.35 metric tons in the first quarter of 2022, showing unchanged gold reserves held by the South African Reserve Bank in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Egypt increased its gold reserves from 80.91 tonnes to 124.97 tonnes to rank No.3 in Africa in terms of gold holdings
This indicates that the Central Bank of Egypt is one of the countries that is warming to deploy gold to reduce the effect of inflation on its economy. This corroborates the 2022 Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey conducted by the World Gold Council.
Libya and Morocco’s gold reserves remain unchanged from what they had in 2021, holding 117 and 22.12 tonnes as No.4 and No.5 respectively.
Gold Reserves in Nigeria remained unchanged at 21.37 Tonnes in the first quarter of 2022 from 21.37 Tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2021
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) maintained its 2021 gold reserve at 21.37 tonnes, occupying the 6th position on the continent.
Below are the top 10 African countries with the highest Gold Reserves:
| Ranking | Country | Reserves By tonnes |
| 1 | Algeria | 174 |
| 2 | South Africa | 125 |
| 3 | Egypt | 124.97 |
| 4 | Libya | 117 |
| 5 | Morocco | 22.12 |
| 6 | Nigeria | 21.37 |
| 7 | Mauritius | 12.44 |
| 8 | Ghana | 8.74 |
| 9 | Tunisia | 6.84 |
| 10 | Mozambique | 3.94 |
Note:
Apart from the CBN’s gold holdings, the troubled country is abundantly blessed with gold deposits in Zamfara, Osun, Abia, Bauchi, Oyo, Sokoto, and more than five other states in the country apart from other natural resources in Nigeria.
But most of the mining goes into the hands of illegal miners from other countries who collude with local communities, thereby depriving the country of the necessary revenues from the precious metal.
Source of Data: