Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons has criticised the role of intermediaries in Ghana's controversial Gold-for-Oil programme, following a report by the think tank revealing a GH¢7 billion leakage.

Speaking on JoyNews’s Newsfile programme on Saturday, October 4, Mr Simons argued that the core beneficiaries of the scheme were not the Ghanaian public, as intended, but a select group of brokers and middlemen who exploited the monetisation process for private gain.

“The eventual beneficiaries of this case were the brokers and the middlemen,” Mr Simons said. “The only persons who got any benefit are the people that were in the middle during the monetisation enabling the shipment of the fuel to BOST, etc.”

He contended that Ghana could have achieved its objectives through a far more transparent mechanism, without relying on opaque channels and costly intermediaries.

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“Ghana could simply have said, okay, we have our domestic gold purchasing programme we are buying gold in cedis, we sold the gold on the international market at the current price. That money is in our reserves.

"We’ve auctioned dollars to BDCs [Bulk Distribution Companies] who import the fuel. Because of that auction, there is more availability of dollars. That would have all been entirely transparent and within the current policy set.”

The GH¢7 billion leakage, according to IMANI Africa’s report, raises serious questions about the efficacy and integrity of the Gold-for-Oil initiative, which was launched by the government with the promise of stabilising fuel prices and reducing pressure on Ghana’s foreign exchange reserves.