Gold-for-oil barter will save Ghana $4.8bn annually in forex - Bawumia

Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia has said Ghana's gold-for-oil programme will help the country to save $4.8 billion per year.

“The savings in foreign exchange, when we do this, will be an annual savings of $4.8 billion every year and that means the oil importing companies will not be going to the Bank of Ghana looking for $4.8 billion to buy oil”, he said at the inauguration of a new office for BOST in Accra on Wednesday, March 15, 2023.

At the same event, Dr Bawumia also said the prices of fuel at the pump will fall further in the coming days due to the barter programme.

Dr Bawumia said: “I am happy to note that the policy is the first of its kind in Ghana, since independence, to address the balance of payment crisis that we face.”

“In my humble opinion, it is the most important macro-economic policy intervention to deal with the exchange rate depreciation, fuel price, and food price issues that we have had."

"We have not only seen a decline in prices of fuel from GH¢23.00 per litre to around GH¢12, but we have also seen stability in the exchange rate," he noted.

So far, Ghana has taken delivery of some 100,000 metric tonnes of oil through the programme.

The programme is intended to reduce pressure on the Ghana cedi while bringing down the price of fuel.

Fuel price to fall 3 - 10% Thursday

Meanwhile, the price of fuel is expected to fall by between 3 and 10 per cent from Thursday, March 16, 2023.

The Institute for Energy Security (IES), which made the projection, indicated that the prices of petrol, diesel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) are to fall.

The IES said “the last two weeks has seen price indicators on both the domestic and international fronts falling and this can translate into some price reductions at the pumps for various petroleum products”.

It noted that the domestic fuel market prices are projected to fall between ¢12.60 for petrol, ¢13.40 for diesel and ¢14 per Kilogramme for LPG.

The international crude oil benchmark Brent fell to about $83.87 from about $84.14 per barrel over the last two weeks.

This represented a marginal drop in the average prices in the window under review.

The commodity which traded at about $86 per barrel in the mid of the window declined to as low as $79 per barrel at the start of Tuesday March 14, 2023.

In the first pricing-window for March 2023, prices of petrol and diesel drop significantly, allowing domestic consumers to enjoy some relief.

The IES said its monitoring of various Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for the pricing-window under review found the national average price for petrol and diesel as ¢13.53 and ¢13.69.

The national average price of LPG, however, sold for ¢15.44 per kilogramme.