A member of the New Patriotic Party’s National Communications Team, Dr. Ezekiel Agyekum-Obeng, has accused the Bank of Ghana of deliberately releasing details of losses under the Gold for Oil programme to distract attention from public backlash over the newly introduced dumsor levy.
He claims the central bank’s timing was a strategic move by government to shift focus from the controversial GHS1 fuel levy imposed under the Energy Sector (Amendment) Act, 2025.
“This attempt to water down the discussion on the dumsor levy is the reason the Bank of Ghana deliberately posted this report. What will kill the Ghanaian even before recapitalization is the dumsor levy,” Dr. Agyekum-Obeng said on Accra-based GHOne TV on Monday, June 9.
The Energy Sector (Amendment) Act, 2025, passed under a certificate of urgency on Tuesday, June 3, introduces a GHS1 levy on every litre of fuel purchased.
Its implementation, initially scheduled for today, June 9, has been postponed to June 16, as government prepares to engage stakeholders who are protesting against it.
The Bank of Ghana’s 2024 financial statement revealed that the Gold for Oil programme, introduced to ease foreign exchange pressures on fuel imports, resulted in GH¢1.82 billion in exchange losses.
This formed part of a total GH¢3.49 billion in revaluation and exchange rate losses recorded by the central bank.
However, Dr. Agyekum-Obeng stated that the Bank of Ghana acted within its mandate when it supported the economy during the 2020 crisis, and again in 2022.
“So whatever the Bank of Ghana did in 2022 is not outside its mandate. Let’s put that on record,” he stressed.
