Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison, has vehemently rejected requests for his resignation from both the minority caucus and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).
In an interview with the international business website, Central Banking, Dr. Addison stated that he has no intention of stepping down and characterized the NDC’s protest as “completely unnecessary.”
He is quoted as saying, “The Minority in parliament have many channels to channel their grievances in civilized societies, not through demonstrations in the streets as hooligans,” referring to the #OccupyBoG protest held on Tuesday.
The demonstrators blamed the BoG’s bad budgetary policies for the current economic crisis, which was the focus of the demonstration.
Additionally, Dr. Addison denied claims made by the Minority that he printed money to pay for the governing government’s lavish lifestyle.
He added that the BoG offered financial assistance in 2020 and 2022 to deal with certain emergencies, which he claimed was permitted by central bank regulation.
The Central Bank reported losses totaling GHC60.81 billion for the 2022 fiscal year, as opposed to a profit of GHC1.23 billion in 2021.
The government’s efforts to restructure domestic debt as well as the depreciation of the cedi, among other things, were the main causes of these losses.
Regarding the central bank’s 2022 losses, Addison explained to Central Banking, “The impairment of the bank’s holdings of debt which led to the losses was a conditionality for the IMF program. Nobody at the Bank of Ghana forgave any debt.”
The governor also made it clear that the decision to start building the new headquarters was made in 2019 when the bank was successful and had set aside a portion of its income for the project.
He emphasized, “It was not a decision taken during a crisis.”
