A member of the New Patriotic Party’s National Communications Team, Dr. Ezekiel Agyekum-Obeng, says the newly introduced Energy Sector (Amendment) Act, 2025, will “kill Ghanaians.”
The bill, passed under a certificate of urgency on Tuesday, June 3, imposes a GHS1 levy on every litre of fuel purchased.
Its implementation, originally scheduled for today, Monday, June 9, has been postponed to June 16 as government moves to engage stakeholders protesting the policy.
Speaking on Accra-based GHOne TV on Monday, Dr. Agyekum-Obeng accused government of trying to evade scrutiny over the controversial levy.
He claimed the Bank of Ghana’s recent release of its debt report on the Gold for Oil policy was a strategic distraction from public outrage over the new levy.
“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,” he said.
Dr. Agyekum-Obeng further argued that in 2020, the Bank of Ghana supported government in line with its constitutional mandate to cushion the economy during emergencies.
“So whatever the Bank of Ghana did in 2022 is not outside its mandate. Let’s put that on record,” he stressed.
The Bank of Ghana’s 2024 financial statement revealed that the country’s Gold for Oil programme, introduced to ease foreign exchange pressures on fuel imports, led to GH¢1.82 billion in exchange rate losses.
This figure formed part of a broader GH¢3.49 billion in total revaluation and exchange losses, highlighting the economic trade-offs confronting central banks in emerging markets.
