Bawumia Is The Man To Rescue Ghana – Frank Annoh-Dompreh On Gold-for-Oil Plan | Politics

The Chief Majority Whip in Parliament, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, has praised the genius of Vice President Dr Mahaudu Bawumia after the successful take off of the gold-for-oil scheme.

Reacting to the recent news of the successful implementation of the policy, Annoh-Dompreh said Bawumia is a gift to Ghana that will rescue us from our current challenges through unconventional policy ideas.

On Twitter, Member of Parliament Nsawam Adoagyiri wrote: “He is a gift to this Nation, don’t underestimate him. Stop ‘Hating’ him.. He will save us, for sure. Dr. Bawumia, always proud of him.”

The reaction came after news broke that Ghana has received the first fuel sold under the gold policy for oil on Monday, January 16, 2023.

41,000 metric tons of fuel sold under the government’s revolutionary ‘gold-for-oil’ policy arrived at the Port of Tema, delivered by the ship SCF YENISEI.

Relatively cheap fuel is bought from the international market with gold instead of US dollars in a new policy that is important to counter the effects of the cedi’s depreciation on the Ghanaian economy.

Speaking on the policy at the opening of the 42nd Annual New Year School and Conference at the University of Ghana, Legon, Bawumia touched on the ingenuity required to formulate the policy.

“We have been mining gold for more than 200 years, and when I looked at the data, I realized that the total gold reserves in Ghana are only 8.7 tons by the end of 2021. One of the largest gold mining countries, we are in the top 10 in the world but we have not added gold to build our reserves.

“We look at the other side of the balance sheet, we export gold and import oil. The cost of oil imports is about 3 billion dollars a year. So the simple question is, why not, because we always get pressure to look for US Dollars to buy oil, it is better to get agreement to exchange gold for oil, then sell oil in Cedis, then use Cedis to buy more gold, use the gold to pay for oil, sell oil in Cedis then no need to look for scarce foreign exchange to buy oil, which always leads to currency depreciation.

“With this idea, we say, let’s do something that is not taught in the textbook, let’s do something that is not in the box and that’s why we say gold for oil. We quickly saw this and we discussed with oil suppliers who were very excited and happy receive gold in payment. Fortunately, yesterday, Monday, Ghana received the first shipment of oil in the gold-for-oil program,” said Bawumia.