Source: newsthemegh.com
The much-heralded “Gold for Oil” scheme might bring down the downstream petroleum industry, according to the Executive Director of the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP).
He claims that in an effort to give the Gold for Oil scheme some legitimacy, the government is stifling profitable endeavors and undercutting the private sector.
Given their track record of inefficiency, he questioned whether the organizations attempting to monopolize the petroleum industry under the Gold for Oil policy would be able to do so.
On Monday, June 5, 2023, after a meeting with members of the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC), Ben Boakye of ACEP raised the alarm in an interview.
The program covered the causes of Ghana’s fiscal issues as well as suggested solutions for long-term economic viability.
He said that the entire program is still covered in secret and that, as a think tank for public policy, ACEP is still fully aware of everything that is going on in the oil sector.
In his words, “As far as we are concerned, we only know that the gold that has so far been purchased is not enough to account for the volumes of oil that have been imported.”
“So what it really means is that some dollars or some other kind of money are being used to buy oil for the Ghanaian market,” said the author.
According to Ben Boakye, the gold market has been severely distorted by the price of oil, which has led to smuggling.