Dr. Ernest Addison, the governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has rejected requests for his resignation from both the minority caucus in parliament and the opposition National Democratic Party (NDC).
In an interview with the international business website Central Banking, Dr. Addison stated that he is not resigning and called the NDC's protest "absolutely unnecessary."
In reference to the #OccupyBoGProtest, Addison said, "The Minority in Parliament have various means to vent their frustrations in civilized society, not through demonstrations in the streets as hooligans."
The demonstration was conducted on Tuesday to condemn the economic crisis, which the demonstrators blamed on the BoG's "bad fiscal policies."
Addison also rejected the claims by the Minority that he printed money to finance the lavish lifestyle of the ruling government.
According to him, the BoG provided monetary financing during 2020 and 2022, to meet specific crises which he says is legal under the central bank law.
The Central Bank posted losses totalling GHC60.81 billion for the 2022 financial year as against a profit of GHC1.23 billion recorded in 2021.
The losses were a result of the government’s domestic debt restructuring activities and the depreciation of the cedi, among other effects.
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.”
The governor also clarified that the BoG decided to start the new headquarters in 2019. This was “when the bank was profitable and appropriated some of its profits for the new headquarters,” he said. “It was not a decision taken during a crisis.”
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