Gold for Oil policy laudable but lacks transparency - Energy Policy Analyst

Energy Policy Analyst, Mr Ben Nsiah says government's Gold for Oil policy is laudable but lacks transparency.

"I personally think the Gold for Oil initiative is a good policy because the government is competitively using the country’s natural resources to the advantage of the masses."

"I am however worried over how the government has failed to at least come out with a formalized document on this particular policy."

“How many ounces of Gold is the government exchanging for a particular tonne of oil, all these must be made public," he posited.

Mr. Ben Nsiah was speaking on Kumasi-based OTEC 102.9 FM's morning show Nyansapo on January 31, 2023.

Vice President Dr. Bahamudu Bawumia had suggested that the government would explore a gold-for-oil barter policy – where gold, rather than the country’s US dollar reserves, will be used to buy oil products in a bid to strengthen the country’s forex reserves position and currency depreciation, with the cedi having lost over 50 percent of its value recently.

Government later announced that some 40,000 metric tonnes of crude oil have been purchased under the batter system it announced earlier.

But Mr Ben Nsiah emphasized that he was concerned over how the government has failed to come clear on how the transaction works.

"The deal is shrouded in complete secrecy since only government officials, who were involved in the transaction, knew the details".

“There is a complete lack of transparency about the transaction, and that is one of the major problems with this initiative". he noted.