BoG says they have enough gold reserves to maintain the “gold for oil policy”

According to the Bank of Ghana (BoG), the nation has sufficient gold reserves to support the administration’s gold for oil program.

This was said by Stephen Opata, the BoG’s director of financial markets, during his Monday appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament (16 January).

According to Opata, the central bank is in a good position to satisfy the agreement’s need for 160,000 ounces of gold per month.

According to the output figures we saw last year, gold has increased in quantity, he continued.

We think we can purchase enough gold to keep the program going.

“I must say that the numbers we are currently looking at [are] about 160,000 ounces per month and that will represent about 50% to 60% of the consumption of the country.

“According to what PMMC indicates, I think we have volumes to support the programme,” Opata said.

The vice-president of the Ghanaian government revealed intentions to use gold instead of US dollars to purchase oil goods in November 2022.

The vice president stated that the gold for oil program was intended to address the country’s declining foreign exchange reserves as well as the demand for dollars from oil importers, both of which were weakening the cedi and driving up living expenses.

According to Bawumia, “it will fundamentally change our balance of payments and significantly reduce the persistent depreciation of our currency.”

Using gold, he said, would prevent the exchange rate from directly affecting the cost of fuel or other necessities since domestic retailers would no longer require foreign currency to import oil supplies.

The government’s gold for oil policy’s first shipment of oil has arrived at Tema Port and been dumped into containers owned by the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST).

BOST will sell the 41,000 metric tonnes of petroleum products that were supplied by the ship SCF YENISEI to bulk distributing businesses (BDCs) in Ghana.

The contract, worth $40 million, was mediated by the economic management team, which is headed by Vice-President Bawumia.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com