Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is Ghana’s former Vice President
The former Vice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has stated that Ghana’s economy would have collapsed without the Gold-for-Oil and gold purchase programme introduced during his tenure under the erstwhile Akufo-Addo administration.
According to him, the decision to go for gold was deliberate and strategic because gold didn’t require foreign exchange.
Speaking during an interaction with the Young Executive Forum (YEF) in London as part of his “Thank You Tour”, Dr Bawumia said the country’s current economic stability is directly tied to bold interventions initiated before the NDC administration took over.
“If we had not instituted the gold purchase program as well as the gold-for-oil program, our economy would have collapsed, it would have, because where would we have gotten $5 billion just to support the economy? You wouldn’t have gotten it,” he stated.
Dr Bawumia revealed that the Bank of Ghana had acquired $5 billion worth of gold in two years, surpassing the $3 billion IMF bailout Ghana pursued with extensive conditions.
He contrasted the NPP’s proactive economic policies with the current NDC administration’s performance.
“They have been in office so far, they’ve not even increased it by one ton, not a single one ton, people, after all the noise of the election, are paying attention to our reserves. That is one thing, which we have built to 30 tonnes,” he added.
He indicated that when the NPP started, Ghana had just 8.7 tonnes of gold reserves, a figure that stayed constant for 65 years after independence.
“If you are to the NDC to point out exactly what policy they have implemented that has resulted in the appreciation of the cedi. They cannot tell you one, they only passed their budget in March. They’ve not even issued any contracts or paid for anything. So, you cannot ascribe what is happening to the currency to a policy they have implemented,” he said.
SP/VPO
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