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Tue, Mar

Ghana Scraps Fuel Subsidy, Ensures Stability In Energy Sector

Africa News
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The Ghana National Petroleum Authority (NPA) through its Chief executive officer (CEO) Abdul Hamid has revealed during a presentation at the ongoing Africa Refiners and Distributers (ARDA) week held in Cape Town, South Africa, that the country has implemented regulatory measures, including the removal of fuel subsidy, to make sure that there is stability across its downstream sector. Hamid stated that measures were put in place with respect to the global oil and gas market volatility caused by the Russian-Ukraine war and energy transition-related policies.

“For the first time in 30 years, we have installed fuel caps as a measure to intervene and to control market instability,” he said.

Hamid said this has helped to restrict uncontrolled increases in fuel and energy prices at the peak of the global market instability since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine started.

NPA boss also spoke about the 'gold for oil' program, in which the country is leveraging its vast gold resources to buy petroleum from international markets.

“We exchange gold directly for petroleum products from international firms. We buy the gold directly from large and small mining firms and exchange it with petroleum. This has stabilized our industry and kept energy prices affordable,” he said.

“We have removed subsidies and deregulated our markets. Industries were shutting down because the government was finding it hard to find the money to provide subsidies and to this day industry is being powered by investments in the private sector and there are no complaints of supply,” he said. “We are ensuring affordability and security for the vulnerable consumers through the removal of energy subsidies.”

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