The Minister of Energy, John Abdulai Jinapor, has said the government will replace the Gold-for-Oil policy due to the opacity that has shrouded the programme.
He says the programme lacks transparency and the necessary clarity for continuation, the reason it is going through reforms for a replacement with an alternative.
The Minister has indicated that the programme has been flagged by the Auditor General and is currently undergoing reforms for it to be scrapped.
“There’s a high level of opacity, and the clarity is not there,” he stated emphatically. The Auditor General has flagged it. So it’s not just what we are saying—it is a fact. The reality is that we are reforming all this because of the high level of opacity.
“If it were that clear, and was that transparent, and you could see everything easily, then you would not even need the reforms we are pursuing,” he said on Accra-based JoyNews Tuesday, February 04, 2025.
“We are pursuing these reforms because of the opacity and the lack of clarity,” he added.
The Gold-for-Oil programme was introduced by the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration to leverage Ghana’s gold reserves in exchange for petroleum products.
But the policy, since its inception, has undergone series of criticism due to the lack of clarity on how it operates. Critics have equally raised concerns on the lack of information on key transactions and how entities are selected to participate in the programme.
The Auditor General’s report, which flagged several irregularities in the programme, has further fueled calls for reform.
Dr. Jinapor has argued that it has been difficult to access information on the deals, particularly those involving offshore companies.
“It is difficult to get information, even in respect of offshore and all these companies that are dealt with. The criteria for even selecting the companies is not clear-cut. So clearly, there’s a problem—that is why we want to reform,” he explained.
The Minister did not mince words to express this government’s quest to discontinue the programme when asked if there were any plans to maintain the policy in the interim.
“No, we will replace it with a better programme. The current Gold-for-Oil programme we’ve inherited—we will discontinue,” he stated.
He stated however, that the process would require some time due to the parliamentary approval and other legal hurdles that need to be satisfied.
“You need some time to put a workable system in place,” he noted. “If you want to set up a new system, you have to go to Parliament and have some legal battles.
“In the interim, we are trying to shift the current system and ensure that we reduce the losses and make it a bit more transparent, but ultimately, we want to replace it.”
