Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has sought to clarify Ghana’s position on the use of the United States (US$) dollar for international transactions following the announcement of the GOG’s new gold-for oil policy.
The gold for oil policy is a new measure from government to purchase oil on the international market with gold rather than US dollars as a means of staving off the cedi’s rampant depreciation and its associated impact on fuel, food and transport prices.
However, following the announcement of the policy, there have been concerns that the move will alienate the United States as Ghana seeks to supplant the long-established practice of using the dollar for international transactions.
Speaking during the AGI awards over the weekend, Bawumia mentioned that Ghana’s move is purely a way to combat cedi depreciation and that it doesn’t mean the country is against the use of the UDS for other international transactions.
“To address this fundamental challenge that we all face of depreciation and its impact on fuel and utility prices and food and so on, the government has opted to implement a policy of using our gold to buy oil products,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“If we implement it as we have envisioned, it will fundamentally change our balance of payment and significantly reduce the persistent deprecation of our currency.
“This has been misrepresented as Ghana being against the use of the US dollars in International transactions. This is not the case. We are not on any mission against the use of the dollars in international transactions, far from it. In fact, we want to accommodate all US dollars in our reserves. But we have a specific issue to deal with oil imports and the prices of fuel, food and transport and utilities that’s essentially what we are targeting,” the Vice President explained.
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com