Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has criticized critics of the gold-for-oil (G4O) policy introduced a few months ago, saying he is “very disappointed” that it is working.
He said the policy since being introduced has resulted in lower fuel prices and buyers will see further reductions from Thursday, March 16.
“There is much more to come. This is only the third month of policy implementation,” he noted Wednesday, March 15 at a forum hosted by Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation ( BOST) Company.
“Some say it won’t work [and that] Ghana doesn’t have enough gold. How can you say that? We’ve been mining this gold for 200 years and they keep taking it out and it just can’t work for us? It doesn’t make any sense.
“There are people who are very disappointed because it works but are still allowed to bleed. We have the mentality of not being able to do it. They may stick to it but for us everything is possible by the grace of God.
The vice president announced the Gold for Oil policy last November as part of an effort to stabilize the foreign exchange market and ensure that the Cedi does not depreciate against major commercial currencies.
The first batch was received in January.
Dr. Bawumia said that G4O is one of the policies since independence to deal with the balance of payments crisis in the economic sector.
“In my humble opinion, this is the most important macroeconomic policy intervention to deal with the devaluation of the exchange rate, the link between fuel prices, wages real and inflation that we already have. Not only did we see the price drop from Gh¢23 per liter to about Gh¢12 per liter, but we also saw the exchange rate as stable as we expected.
SOURCE: 3NEWS.COM