Dr Johnson Asiama the governor of the Bank of Ghana has suspended Dr Mahamdu Bawumia 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.
There have been reports that Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s Gold for Oil program has allegedly suffered a staggering $90 million loss.
According to reports from the Ghana Chronicles, the situation escalated when a licensed company tasked with purchasing gold for the initiative allegedly vanished with the funds.
They further indicated that the revelations reportedly emerged during transition meetings as the Mahama administration assumed office.
It has also emerged that the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company Limited (BOST) and its management led by its former Managing Director, Dr Edwin Alfred Nii Obodai Provencal, are also reportedly implicated in the Gold for Oil programme’s mismanagement and financial losses.
The Bank of Ghana (BoG) meanwhile announced that it will progressively phase out the Gold for Oil policy, implemented in February 2023 to alleviate fuel prices.
The Central Bank indicated that the program has achieved its purpose and is no longer necessary.
BoG under Addison stated, “The Gold for Oil policy was a crisis management policy. We came in at the time in 2022 when the currency was depreciating very sharply and then prices at the pump became unbearable.
“So as things normalise the rationale for these interventions may not be as strong as they were when we were in the middle of the crisis. So this is why we may have to get out of that operation”, BoG revealed.
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.
See the post below:
Dr. Johnson Asiama suspends Gold-for-Oil program…#GHOneNews #EIBNetwork #GHOneTV #NewsAlert pic.twitter.com/XubF1xlsiL
— GHOne TV (@ghonetv) March 3, 2025
