Duncan Amoah, the Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) has boldly stated, that the former vice president Dr Mahamudu Bawumia Gold for oil policy was never the answer to Ghana’s fuel price fluctuations.
According to Duncan Amoah, the Gold for Oil programme was neither sustainable nor a viable solution to addressing fuel price fluctuations.
Duncan Amoah’s comments come after Dr Johnson Asiama the governor of the Bank of Ghana has suspended Dr Mahamdu Bawumia’s Gold-for-Oil program.
According to reports, Dr Johnson Asiama has suspended Ghana’s paying for oil with gold.
Dr Johnson Asiama according to reports from Bloomberg revealed that he expects the cedi to stabilize after its instability of last year.
In an interview on Friday, Dr Johnson Asiama stated, “We intend to maintain an appropriate monetary policy stance”.
“I can tell you for sure that for this year we’ll not see a loss occurring. We are taking the right measures to control operational costs”, he added.
Speaking in an interview on Citi FM, Duncan Amoah stated, “It is not shocking or surprising. If anything, the suspension came a bit late, but we understand that certain administrative processes had to be followed”.
Duncan Amoah praised the new BoG boss for suspending the Gold for Oil programme but hoped the NDC government would not introduce another scheme.
He added, “The Gold-for-Oil programme was never going to be the solution to Ghana’s fuel price fluctuations. It was unsustainable and unsafe. Kudos to the new governor for suspending it, but I hope they don’t introduce another scheme.
The real solution is to fix our refineries. That way, Ghanaians can rest assured that we are refining our petroleum products instead of relying on imports.”
Meanwhile, the former vice president Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said the success of the Gold-for-Oil programme cannot be ignored.
Dr Bawumia argued that without the policy, Ghana’s economy would have collapsed.
Dr. Bawumia in a media encounter on Sunday, August 25, 2024, held in Accra, stated boldly, “Without the gold purchase program and the gold-for-oil programme, this economy would have collapsed”.
However, a former Independent presidential candidate Kofi Koranteng in the 2024 elections has boldly stated Gold for oil is one of the dumbest things Ghana could do as a country.
Kofi Koranteng noted that mothers go to the hospital, and they give birth on the floor when Ghana is the number one country in terms of gold revenues in Africa, and number six in the world.
Speaking on GTV Ghana Presidential Encounters show, Kofi Koranteng stated, “Our mothers go to the hospital, and they give birth on the floor when we are the number one country in terms of gold revenues in Africa, and number six in the world”.
“Go to Abossey Okai, what time is it, go to Abossey Okai tonight right now as we speak you will see mothers and babies on the floor finding a place in front of a stall to lay their heads, you are the number one country in Gold, you telling us Gold is justified that is what Bawumia is telling us, we doing Gold for oil, it is one of the most dumbest things we could do as a country”, he revealed.
