Page 10 - AfrOil Week 48 2022

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

The vice president said the new policy was country’s central bank, beginning on January 1,
designed to help bring domestic prices down 2023.
while also boosting foreign exchange supplies. It has said that this order will allow it to build
(Other observers have pointed out that the plan up extra reserves of gold bullion that can be used
could also have the effect of preventing the fur- to cover the cost of petroleum product imports
ther depreciation of Ghana’s national currency, and also curb demand for foreign currency fol-
the cedi.) lowing the cedi’s 57% decline against the US dol-
To support the new measure, the Ghanaian lar since the beginning of 2022.
government has ordered large mining compa- Ghana is the second largest producer of gold
nies to sell 20% of all the gold they process to the in Africa. ™

Angola issues arrest warrant for former

Sonangol head over alleged corruption

ANGOLA ANGOLA’S government has issued an arrest associates and others.
warrant for Isabel dos Santos, the daughter of José Filomeno dos Santos, the former pres-
the oil-rich country’s late president José Edu- ident’s son, was sentenced in 2020 to five years
ardo dos Santos, to face questioning over alleged in prison for embezzling $500mn from Angola’s
corruption. sovereign fund. However, he remains free while
Dos Santos, once considered Africa’s wealth- the case is being appealed.
iest woman, has been accused of enriching In January 2020, the attorney general said
herself with state resources during her time in that Isabel dos Santos would be charged with
control of Sonangol, the national oil company “money laundering, influence peddling, harm-
(NOC). ful management” and “forgery of documents,
Attorney general Hélder Pitta Grós said on among other economic crimes” allegedly com-
Monday, November 28, that Angola was seek- mitted while she was running Sonangol. ™
ing her arrest through Interpol, after failing to
locate her and receiving no response from her
lawyers to multiple requests that she submit to
questioning.
Meanwhile, Maka Angola, an Angolan cor-
ruption and democracy watchdog, has raised
concerns over the possibility that how the war-
rant has been issued may complicate Dos San-
tos’s extradition from overseas.
President João Lourenço has been trying
since he came to power in 2017 to tackle insti-
tutional corruption and to recover government
funds that were secreted and invested locally
and overseas by the Dos Santos family, its close Former Sonangol head Dos Santos is the richest woman in Africa (Photo: VerAngola)

South Africa to seek public comment on

green hydrogen commercialisation plan

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s Cabinet has approved the pub- that the country becomes a major producer and
lication of the Green Hydrogen Commerciali- exporter of green hydrogen and its derivatives.
sation Strategy (GHCS) for public comment, The GHCS will contribute towards the sec-
Engineering News reported on December 1. tor’s growth and support a just energy transition.
According to Minister in the Presidency It follows the Hydrogen Society Roadmap that
Mondli Gungubele, the strategy aims to ensure was adopted by the cabinet in 2021.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 48 01•December•2022