The Chamber for Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) is predicting that fuel prices in Ghana would fall after the Bank of Ghana met with the Bulk Distribution Companies (BDCs) and gave them favourable exchange rates.
The BDCs now have more foreign currency at their disposal thanks to the Bank of Ghana. This implies that the BDCs would receive most of the funds they require from the BoG, unlike earlier circumstances where some importers were compelled to rely on commercial banks and illicit market systems.
Sampson Addae, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for COPEC made these statements when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show today, November 15, 2022.
“We did say that prices were going to go down and some days after, we came to say that prices were going to go up because we had been involved in a series of meetings with the OMCs and BDCs and how the Bank of Ghana was expected to come in. At a point when the OMCs were not sure the Bank of Ghana was going to intervene, then they said they were going to let the prices go up. But by Friday and today, the Bank of Ghana has come in strongly to intervene and has given some dollars, at a good rate, which has allowed the OMCs to have some breathing space so they have decided to reduce the prices of fuel.”
“Diesel would go down by about Ghc3 and then petrol would also go down by Ghc1,” he said.
Mr. Addae is however unsure if the intervention by the BoG would continue to the end of the year.
“We do not know if it would be sustainable and to which time period they would continue to do that. We hope they can sustain this intervention to the end of the year,” he said.
Should the intervention continue to the end of the years, there could some stability in the prices of fuel at the pumps, according to Mr. Addae.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
