Ghana has received its second consignment of Petroleum products under the Gold-for-Oil Programme.
Ghana received 40,000MT of diesel and 35,000MT of petrol at a cost of 40 million Dollars which has just arrived and is being discharged, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid said.
He indicated that in consultation with the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMCs), it has been decided that only Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) with 45 retail outlets will receive products.
This is to ensure that the impact of the G4O programme is felt by consumers across the country, he said.
“In this second consignment of gold for oil products that have come we are going to sell only to OMCs with not less than 45 outlets because there are 150 OMCs , if you are selling in pieces to all the 150 OMCs you will not realize the impact but if you are selling to the people with the highest number of outlets then its effect will be felt across the country in terms of the prices reduction,” he said at a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, February 22.
Ghana took delivery of the first consignment, 40,000 metric tons of oil at the Tema port on Sunday, January 15, 2023.
The gold for oil initiative is an attempt by the government to move away from the US dollar for international transactions.
The Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who announced this move stated at the 2022 Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) Awards in Accra, that the programme will give Ghana the space to accumulate more international reserves as the country will save the $3 billion it spends on oil imports.
He further stated that the use of gold was specifically for oil imports in the face of declining foreign exchange reserves.
Dr Bawumia noted that a major source of Cedi depreciation has been the demand for forex to finance imports of oil products and to address this challenge, government is negotiating a new policy regime where sustainably mined gold will be used to buy oil products.
“we implement the gold-for-oil policy as it is envisioned, it will fundamentally change our balance of payments and significantly reduce the persistent depreciation of our currency with its associated increases in fuel, electricity, water, transport and food prices.”
This, he noted, is because the exchange rate will no longer directly enter the formula for the determination of fuel or utility prices since all the domestic sellers of fuel will no longer need foreign exchange to import oil products
By Laud Nartey|editors.3news.com|Ghana
