{"id":96985,"date":"2025-10-04T10:50:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T10:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96985"},"modified":"2025-10-04T10:50:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T10:50:26","slug":"bright-simons-slams-middlemen-windfall-in-gh%c2%a27bn-gold-for-oil-leak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96985","title":{"rendered":"Bright Simons slams middlemen windfall in GH\u00a27bn Gold-for-Oil leak"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='booster-block booster-read-block'>\n                <div class=\"twp-read-time\">\n                \t<i class=\"booster-icon twp-clock\"><\/i> <span>Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 23 Second                <\/div>\n\n            <\/div><div>\n<p>Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons has criticised the role of intermediaries in Ghana\u2019s controversial Gold-for-Oil programme, following a report by the think tank revealing a GH\u00a27 billion leakage.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on\u00a0JoyNews\u2019s <em><strong>Newsfile<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0programme on Saturday,\u00a0October 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.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe eventual beneficiaries of this case were the brokers and the middlemen,\u201d Mr Simons said. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He contended that Ghana could have achieved its objectives through a far more transparent mechanism, without relying on opaque channels and costly intermediaries. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Read also: IMANI demands audit as forensic report exposes Gold-for-Oil scandal<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cGhana 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. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The GH\u00a27 billion leakage, according to IMANI Africa\u2019s 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\u2019s foreign exchange reserves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n        <div class=\"booster-block booster-reactions-block\">\n            <div class=\"twp-reactions-icons\">\n                \n                <div class=\"twp-reacts-wrap\">\n                    <a react-data=\"be-react-1\" post-id=\"96985\" class=\"be-face-icons un-reacted\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\">\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/wp-content\/plugins\/booster-extension\/\/assets\/icon\/happy.svg\" alt=\"Happy\">\n                    <\/a>\n                    <div class=\"twp-reaction-title\">\n        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class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Bright Simons slams middlemen windfall in GH\u00a27bn Gold-for-Oil leak\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bright Simons slams middlemen windfall in GH\u00a27bn Gold-for-Oil leak\">Honorary Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons has criticised the role of intermediaries in Ghana&#8217;s controversial Gold-for-Oil programme, following a report by the think tank revealing a GH\u00a27 billion leakage.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2840,9833,1906,1883,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bright-simons","category-gold-for-oil-g4o","category-hp-news-5","category-national","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}