Bright Simons Blasts Intermediaries Over GH¢7bn Leak in Ghana’s Gold-for-Oil Programme
Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has sharply criticised the use of intermediaries in Ghana’s Gold-for-Oil programme, following a new report by the think tank that revealed a GH¢7 billion leakage. Speaking on JoyNews’s Newsfile, Mr. Simons said the intended beneficiaries—the Ghanaian public—did not gain from the initiative. Instead, he claimed, a network of brokers and middlemen reaped significant profits from the monetisation process. “The eventual beneficiaries of this case were the brokers and the middlemen,” Mr. Simons stated. “The only people who got any benefit are those who were in the middle during the monetisation, enabling the shipment of the fuel to BOST and others.” He argued that Ghana could have met its objectives through a simpler, more transparent approach—without relying on opaque and costly intermediaries. “Ghana could simply have said, we have our domestic gold purchasing programme, […]