BoG must stop needless auctioning of US dollars on open market – COPEC

BoG must classify petroleum imports differently

Stabilization of the cedi, way to address fuel challenges

Fuel price continue soaring

The Executive Director of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana (COPEC)has stated that the Bank of Ghana should channel the “needless” auctioning of dollars on the open market to investing in some critical imports, especially petroleum products.

According to him, if the Central Bank fails to act swiftly, oil marketing companies may be forced to go to the black market.

“The BOG should stop the needless auctioning of dollars on the open market and channel this dollar fund towards some of this very critical importation because if you don’t, you are simply going to have them [OMCs] go to the black market and the BDCs also to go and sought for the dollar. And you and I know the black-market rate usually will be a bit higher than the interbank rate.”

Duncan Amoah also stated that the “Bank of Ghana will need to classify petroleum importation a bit differently from how we treat other general import into the country.”

He made these comments after the increasing rate of fuel prices have been attributed to the depreciation of the cedi against major foreign currencies, especially the dollar.

Duncan Amoah told GhanaWeb that the Bulk Oil Distributor’s worry over the cedi is legitimate.

“If you look at the position of the cedi currently, it is difficult to contest and to put pressure for them to reduce their prices especially when you look at the fact that they would need to reconvert the cedi notes to dollars to be able to pay their suppliers,” he explained.

He stated that the cedi’s stabilization will address the issue of petroleum price hikes.

“As we speak, international markets are beginning to drop bit by bit, cool off as they would say. Unfortunately, the cedi is not cooling off and so even where you would find prices on the international market declining and the cedi continuously depreciating, you would, unfortunately, have to pay more for fuel and that for us is worrying,” he stated.