The Chief Executive Officer of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA), Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, has said diesel could be selling at around GH¢28 per litre if the government had not intervened to cushion consumers from rising international petroleum prices.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Wednesday, September 16, Mr Tamakloe said government had absorbed a significant portion of the increase to prevent the full cost from being passed on to consumers.
“I need to point out that for the intervention from government, a litre of diesel should be selling within the region of GHC28 per litre,” he said.
He said the intervention had helped keep diesel prices below what they would otherwise have been, noting that the international cost of diesel had risen sharply since February 2026.
Mr Tamakloe said government had absorbed part of the increase rather than allowing the full cost to reflect at the pumps.
He estimated that the interventions had so far amounted to close to GH¢1 billion.
“We have done close to Ghc1 billion by way of intervention to push the impact, which otherwise would have come directly to the consumers of petroleum products,” he said.
He illustrated the intervention by saying that a motorist buying 10 litres of diesel was effectively receiving GH¢20 in government support.
“Do you know that today, if you go out to the pump and you buy 10 litres of diesel, what it means is that the Government of Ghana is directly putting 20 Ghana cedis in your pockets?” he said.
Mr Tamakloe’s comments come amid renewed pressure for higher transport fares, with transport unions citing rising fuel costs as one of the reasons for the proposed increases.
He said the government’s fuel intervention should be considered in assessing the impact of fuel prices on the operating costs of private transport operators.
The government maintained a GH¢2-per-litre intervention on diesel as part of measures to cushion consumers from rising petroleum prices.
Mr Tamakloe said the international petroleum market remained volatile, meaning further movements in global prices could continue to affect Ghana’s domestic fuel market.
Citinewsroom
