Dr Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has rejected requests for his resignation from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Minority group in Parliament.
In an interview with the international business news website Central Banking, Dr. Addison stated that he will not resign and called the NDC protest “completely unnecessary.”
“The Minority in parliament have many channels to channel their grievances in civilised societies, not through demonstrations in the streets as hooligans,” Addison added in reference to the #OccupyBoGProtest.
The rally was conducted on Tuesday to condemn the economic crisis caused by what the demonstrators called the BoG’s inadequate fiscal strategy.
Addison also denied the Minority’s accusation that he printed money to fund the ruling government’s luxurious lifestyle.
According to him, the BoG supplied monetary financing to handle specific emergencies between 2020 and 2022, which he claims is permitted under central bank rules.
The Central Bank lost GHC60.81 billion in the fiscal year 2022, compared to a profit of GHC1.23 billion in the previous year.
The losses were caused, among other things, by the government’s domestic debt restructuring measures and the cedi’s depreciation.
Addison told Central Banking about the central bank’s 2022 losses: “The impairment of the bank’s holdings of debt which led to the losses was a conditionality for the IMF programme. Nobody at the Bank of Ghana forgave any debt.”
The governor also stated that the Board of Governors decided to begin construction on the new headquarters in 2019. This was “when the bank was profitable and appropriated some of its profits for the new headquarters,” according to the report.
” he said. “It was not a decision taken during a crisis.”
