Page 10 - AfrOil Week 02 2023

AfrOil POLICY AfrOil

Ghana’s central bank to sell $200mn

in forex to fuel distributors in Q1 2023

GHANA THE Bank of Ghana (BoG) will sell some
$200mn to petroleum product distributors,
known as Bulk Oil Distribution Companies
(BDCs), in the first quarter of 2023 in its Forex
Forward Auction, $220mn less than it sold
through banks in the last quarter of 2022.
The bank will sell $80mn in January, $60mn
in February and another $60mn in March 2023.
It is unclear whether $200mn will be enough
to cater to the need of BDCs to import the right
amount of crude oil into Ghana. Energy man-
agement strategist Dr. Yussif Sulemana told Joy
News that about twice as much was required.
He also said, though, that the government
might have a strategy in place to import petro- The central bank halted forex support to BDCs last November (Photo: Bank of Ghana)
leum products based on the “gold-to-oil” barter
arrangement. then they shouldn’t be any cause for concern”,
“[As] I said, we cannot sound alarmed at this he said.
moment in time. I want to believe that because The foreign exchange auctions will be held
of the ‘gold-to-oil’ deal or because of the petro- from January 12 to March 29, 2023.
leum products-to-gold exchange being cham- In November, the BoG halted foreign
pioned by the Bank of Ghana and other allied exchange support to BDCs to fund the importa-
agencies within the downstream sector if that is tion of some commodities, including rice, poul-
able to cover the deficit [in petroleum imports], try, vegetables and ceramics, among others. ™

Head of Industrial Association of Angola

urges government to cut fuel subsidies

ANGOLA JOSÉ Severino, the president of the Industrial
Association of Angola (AIA), has urged his
country’s government to eliminate subsidies for
domestic petroleum products.
Severino told the Lusa news agency on Janu-
ary 8 that the price supports distorted the local
fuel market and were causing the country to lose
money to the tune of $200mn per year. Subsidies
encourage smuggling, he declared, referring to
the practice of purchasing petroleum products
at low prices in border towns in Angola and
then selling them at higher rates in neighbour-
ing countries.
“[This] is the old dilemma of the Angolan
economy, which has been dragging on for doz-
ens and dozens of years,” he remarked. Severino argues that fuel subsidies contribute to smuggling (Photo: Facebook/AIA)
Luanda has allowed the problem to persist
rather than attempting to settle it, he said, and This situation has caused damage to the Ango-
as a result, the price of motor fuel is now lower lan economy and hurt ordinary consumers, he
than that of water in many parts of the country. complained.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 12•January•2023