Dr. Ernest Addison, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has expressed his resolute stance in response to the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Minority caucus in Parliament, who have called for his resignation through a ‘massive’ demonstration.
In an interview with the international business website, Central Banking, Dr. Addison stated that he had no intention of stepping down and deemed the NDC’s protest as “completely unnecessary.”
Further, he referred to honorable parliamentarians as ‘hooligans’ who ought to have chosen ‘acceptable’ options to express their points.
“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.
On Tuesday, a protest was held to denounce the economic crisis, which the protesters attributed to poor fiscal policy by the Bank of Ghana (BoG). In response to claims by the Minority that he printed money to finance the ruling government’s lavish lifestyle, Addison refuted these allegations.
He clarified that the BoG provided monetary financing in 2020 and 2022 to address specific crises, which is permissible under the central bank law. The Central Bank incurred losses amounting to GHC60.81 billion in the 2022 financial year, compared to a profit of GHC1.23 billion in 2021. These losses were due to the government’s domestic debt restructuring activities and the depreciation of the cedi, among other factors.
Regarding the central bank’s 2022 losses, Addison told Central Banking: “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.”
