Energy Strategist, Dr. Yusif Suleiman is pushing for the scrapping of the Gold-For-Oil Policy citing possible negative returns.

Government at the beginning of 2023 began the rollout of the policy aimed at curbing the rising cost of fuel while checking depreciation.

But 12 months since its implementation, Dr. Suleiman in an interview with Starr News said the constant purchasing of gold solely to be swapped for oil does not inure to the benefit of the country.

“I believe we have to cancel it all together. If we want to talk about review, my best bet will be the fact that if we are capable of doing inter-governmental agreements, that will deliver us something more substantial and quantifiable than what we are current doing. I think what we are currently doing, the links are just simply too many especially when we have a broker coming between to get us the supply."

He added: “The concept in all if we had control over our gold inflow, could have been a beautiful concept. To minimize our dependency on hard currency, every economy is trying to do that, but the how is what is critical. I think gold for oil is highly limited in its ability to minimize our dependency."

"If we were able to accumulate gold for all these years and we had gold reserves that is huge and robust enough, then this would have been easier. But this is the case where we have to buy this gold before we can do the exchange. So that defeats the benefits. Some analysts can argue that it is a zero-sum game because we have to buy the gold and that has worked against the policy.”