The government has been advised to take a second look at the ‘Gold for Oil’ Programme as it has not impacted on prices of petroleum products at the pumps.

According to Energy Strategist, Dr. Yussif Sulemana, the intended purpose of the policy has not been achieved and therefore a review of the programme is the way to go.

His comments is coming after some Oil Marketing Companies withdrew from the programme due to unresolved concerns.

Speaking to Joy Business, Dr. Sulemana said the champions of the policy must do the needful.

“The problem is that it’s not being able to stabilise the cedi that we want to stabilise. At best maybe it has minimised the depreciation rate and that’s not what we wanted”.

“We wanted to be able to step on and have control of the cedi and consequently impact at the pumps. But at this point in time, I think the programme hasn’t had any substantial impact on the pumps”, he added.

According to Dr. Sulemana, it is quite unfortunate that the policy has not yielded the intended result.

“It’s quite unfortunate and the champions of the programme will have to relook at it and look at the successes and weigh against what we are trading on”.

He quizzed “Are we ready to disturb these institutions [OMCs] just to stabilise the cedi that we are not able to have a firm handle on?”

“At this point in time and in that case, I think the programme needs to be reviewed and if it cannot be reviewed, then we have to just advise ourselves”, he added.