Deputy Minister of Finance Dr John Ampontuah Kumah has jumped in defence of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor and his two deputies following the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s demand for their resignations.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called for the resignation of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, over alleged mismanagement of the nation’s central bank.
The party threatened to occupy the central bank if the governor and his team refused to vacate their positions after the 21-day ultimatum.
“In this regard, we call for the resignation of the Governor of the central bank and his deputies within 21 days from today,” said the Minority leader, Cassiel Ato-Forson in a press conference held on Tuesday, August 8.
However, in a counterargument, Dr. Kumah has appealed to the public to disregard what he labels as baseless “propaganda” aimed at undermining both the leadership of the central bank and the broader government.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, August 9, the Ejisu MP said BoG is in a “solid state” and is nowhere near collapse. According to him, the BoG’s main source of income is from government transactions and should government transactions reduce, it will automatically affect the income of the central bank.
“Ignore this funny NDC Propaganda about the collapse of the Bank of Ghana (BoG). BoG is Solid!”
“The NDC is funny! It’s not true that a recapitalization levy is to be introduced for BoG, the Central Bank hasn’t collapsed.”
“The main source of income to the Bank is from government transactions i.e. fees on all government transfers, the bank’s investments in marketable instruments and also earnings from non-marketable holdings of the Bank.”
“Given that government transactions have gone down, naturally, the income of the bank will go down. Also, because of the debt restructuring, earnings on their holdings on markable and non-marketable bonds will go down,” he posited.
“Beyond this, the Bank is solid and is capable of performing its core function. Article 183 clause 2 (c) of the 1992 constitution enjoins the Bank of Ghana to promote and encourage economic development in the country, hence there is nothing untoward in the actions of the Central Bank to support the state in its economic recovery efforts,” he added.
The Deputy Minister also emphasized that the losses recorded by the central bank are not unusual as most central banks around the world do same to economic anchor objectives.
“It is important to further highlight that a negative balance sheet by a Central Bank is not unusual most Central Banks around the world run negative balances to achieve the overall economic anchor objectives of a Central Bank.”
