Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has revealed that the much-publicised “Gold for Oil” policy under the previous administration never involved any actual barter of gold for petroleum products.

Speaking on PM Express on JoyNews, the minister delivered a stunning account of how the policy, widely credited with helping stabilise the cedi, was in fact nothing more than a conventional cash-for-oil arrangement.

“It didn’t work properly. The Bank of Ghana were largely paying the suppliers of crude oil and petroleum products in cash. That was what they were doing. They never paid them with gold, never, never,” Dr. Forson declared in response to a direct question from host Evans Mensah.

Despite repeated public assurances by the previous administration that gold was being used directly to procure oil to ease pressure on foreign exchange reserves, Dr. Forson insisted that no such barter ever occurred.

“Actually, someone sitting somewhere in the Emirates was supplying the Chamber Bulk Oil Distribution (CBOD). And then CBOD will be paying. They give the cedi to the BoG, and it pays the dollars. That’s it.

"Pure trade. Nothing more than what they were touting. It was far from what they were touting. There was no barter where gold was going to change for oil? No, nothing of the sort happened,” he explained.

Asked whether he had confirmed this with officials at the central bank, Dr. Forson replied emphatically, “Oh yes, yes, I asked. They were keeping some gold. You could see that their gold reserves increased. That was a fact.

"They were keeping the gold that they were buying. The central bank was buying gold. They call it gold for reserves. There was no real barter. Nothing of the sort happened.”

He also took issue with attempts to conflate two separate policies, the Bank of Ghana’s gold reserve accumulation program and the so-called gold-for-oil deal.

“BoG buys gold and keeps the gold. It is different from buying the gold, exporting the gold and bringing the Forex. I hear people comparing these two policies, but they are two different policies. It doesn’t mean the same,” Dr. Forson clarified.

When pressed on whether the gold could have helped reduce forex pressure indirectly, Dr. Forson doubled down.

“I’m not aware that there was a direct barter. There was no direct barter. I’m telling you for a fact, there was no barter.”

The Finance Minister’s remarks came just hours after he presented the 2025 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review to Parliament, marking a turning point in the government’s handling of economic transparency and accountability on major policy claims.