Government has expressed confidence that the plan to procure oil with gold for the Ghanaian market can be realised as early as March next year.
Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ The Probe on Sunday, the Deputy Energy Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam said government expects to finalise arrangements and implement the arrangement to ease the high cost of petroleum products in the country.
Referring to the announcement by the Vice President, he indicated March next year, but we are working very fast to implement as quickly as possible. Granted that we can even start today, we will do that,” he said.
Vice President Dr Mahamadu Bawumia announced last Thursday that government is negotiating a gold-for-oil barter deal to address the country’s “dwindling foreign exchange reserves” and also to address rising prices of petroleum products.
According to him, the team is working hard if possible, to implement the deal before the given date – March 2023.
Dr. Amin Adam explained that the major stakeholders have all been engaged to get their buy-in.
“We have been engaging with a number of stakeholders, those in the oil industry in Ghana, we have engaged the Bank of Ghana, we also have been talking to oil suppliers those who supply petroleum products to our country through the BDC and we also have been engaging gold refiners as well as gold brokers. This is why at this point we are confident that we can implement that policy,” he noted.
He added that Ghanaians will also be engaged in the operationalisation of the policy.
Reacting to this development, the CEO of Ghana Chamber of Mines Dr. Sulemana Konney revealed that their members already have an agreement with the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to sell about 25,000 ounces of their gold to the central bank.
What we know officially is a programme government called the domestic gold purchase programme and we have been engaging government since last year,” he stated.
Meanwhile, a Member of Parliament’s Mines and Energy Committee Dr. Kwabena Donkor wants government to manage the process well to prevent companies from taking out their gold through unapproved means.
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