President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is pleased with the Gold for Oil Policy’s accomplishments so far.
The President stated during his State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Wednesday that the program targeted at recovering the economy “is already bearing fruit.”
“Firstly, it will help us preserve foreign exchange, especially the US dollar, and secondly, it will enable us to stabilise the price of oil products such as petrol and diesel on the domestic market.”
He stated that there had been some accomplishments on both fronts, with “the price of US dollars and petroleum items reducing since we announced the program and began to implement it.”
“The average price of petrol at the pump, which had risen to twenty (20) cedis a litre, in the middle of December 2022, is now thirteen cedis and eighty pesewas (GH¢13.80) a litre. The price of diesel had risen to more than twenty-three cedis and seventy pesewas (GH¢23.70) a litre and is now selling on average at thirteen cedis and eighty pesewas (GH¢13.80) a litre, which is a reduction of almost ten cedis a litre.”
“We expect this trend of falling fuel prices to reflect soon in our daily lives since transport fares affect the price of everything. I hope the trend of prices going up and coming down becomes a regular feature of our retail economy as is being demonstrated in the fuel prices. Because, as we all know, prices, especially of petroleum products, used only to go up in our country,” he further indicated.
The government introduced the gold for oil scheme to assist relieve pressure on the cedi and bring in cheaper gasoline.
Thus far, the program has resulted in the importation of around 100,000 metric tons of gasoline into Ghana.
