The Ashanti Regional Chairman for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, is advocating for the introduction of Gold for Dollar policy following the successful implementation of Gold for Oil policy that has kept the pricing of fuel at a stable rate.
Mr Bernard Antwi-Boasiako popularly known as Chairman Wontumi told Wontumionline.com that to further prevent the dollar from weakening the Ghana cedi, Gold for Dollar should be set in motion to get businessmen and women using gold coins for international business transactions rather than using the dollar.
“Now we know gold for oil is working so if the Bank of Ghana can add gold for dollar, then it can solve some major problem. People into buying and selling can depend on it. We can have a gold coin that would be used and we can partner MasterCard for this to be a success story”, he said.
Chairman Wontumi continued that Thailand has a policy in place that allows them to exchange their rice for oil and this system means that Ghana can build on it and replace the use of dollar with gold.
In 2008, the Financial Times reported that Thailand planned to barter rice for oil with Iran.
The report indicated that exchange is a clearest example to date of how the triple financial, fuel and food crisis is reshaping global trade as countries struggle with high commodity prices and a lack of credit.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation said such government-to-government bartering – a system of trade not used for decades – was likely to become more common as the private sector was finding it hard to access credit for food imports.