The CEO of the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD) says its members are not opposed to the government’s Gold for Oil policy but rather take issue with its skewed implementation.
Dr Patrick Ofori told Evans Mensah on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday that they were in favour of the policy so it would be easy to identify potential challenges.
“This was to ensure that although this is a temporary fix, we find a way of formalizing and structuring it with every stakeholder being relevant and knowing that their perspectives have been considered,” he said.
However, he stated the Bulk Oil Distributing Companies (BDCs) point of departure.
“In technical terms, we are not against it, but we are against the way the implementation has been skewed in favour of public entities.
“What we are saying is that the central bank has done remarkably well when it came onboard with the forex option, but we are advocating that since they already have an existing relationship with us and our banks.
“What we require is that even if you don’t trust and regulate us, at least you regulate the financial institution, let’s cede our cedi to the financial institution so they will pass it onwards to the BoG and as they manage with the auction, they also use that to procure the gold and the resultant forex will be accumulated to us,” he said.
Dr Ofori said the BDCs’ bone of contention has been that although they understand the strategic role BOST plays, “none of us set up our business with BOST as a middleman. We all set up our businesses because we built a track record of having a wonderful relationship with these international players.”
He said for all the years that BOST was not able to pay its debt, the private sector kept the market going.
The CBOD boss is, therefore, wondering, “What has changed that all of a sudden, they (BDCs) are seen as the black sheep?”
According to him, the sad aspect is that because the BDCs are predominantly owned by Ghanaians, they are being skipped “to enrol another entity that is in the private sector (Sentuo Oil Refinery Limited).”
He further questioned the national interest in facilitating forex for Sentuo Oil Refinery Limited.
“Government should expand it to cover everyone beyond the 40%.”
Dr Ofori also proposed that other variables like the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) which also buy fuel should have a similar structure so “it won’t be like only the BDCs cause the exchange rate to go up.”
Background
The Gold for Oil policy, which was introduced in November 2022, is an innovative measure to exchange gold for petroleum products.
The government has maintained that the decision was meant to limit demand for dollars for the importation of petroleum products to slow the currency’s devaluation.