A former Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority, Alex Mould, has described the government’s gold for oil policy as unnecessary.
“The gold for oil policy is quite an unnecessary one,” he is quoted by asaasenews.com.
According to government, the policy, which involves exchanging Ghana’s gold for oil, is to solve the country’s balance of payment issues and deal with the rapid depreciation of the cedi.
Alex Mould is however of the belief that the assertion by government is flawed.
He said, “So, the whole argument that if [the] government buys gold and barters it for petroleum products, there’ll be less pressure on foreign exchange is flawed.”
Alex Mould also explained that the policy does not serve its intended purpose since the two products involved, i.e gold and fuel, will still sell at the same prices.
“Government going for barter is not going to reduce the price of petrol we are buying, or increase the price we get from the sale of gold. It’s going to be the same price with selling our gold, and the same price we’re buying our products,” Mould added.
The government’s gold for oil policy has come under intense criticism after it was revealed that cash was used to purchase the first consignment.
Meanwhile, fuel prices have increased twice already in 2023 despite the delivery of 40,000 metric tonnes of oil in January.
Source: ghanaweb.com
