Dr. Ernest Addison, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), has firmly rejected calls from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Minority caucus in Parliament for his resignation. In an interview with the international business news website, Central Banking, Dr. Addison stated that he has no intentions of stepping down, dismissing the NDC’s protests as “completely unnecessary.”
Addressing the #OccupyBoGProtest, which aimed to denounce the economic crisis due to what protesters termed poor fiscal policy by the BoG, Dr. Addison criticized the approach, referring to it as street demonstrations by “hooligans.” He suggested that the Minority in parliament has more appropriate channels to express their grievances in civilized societies.
Additionally, Dr. Addison refuted claims by the Minority that he printed money to fund the ruling government’s extravagant lifestyle. He clarified that the BoG provided monetary financing in 2020 and 2022 to address specific crises, which he asserted is legal under central bank law.
Dr. Addison acknowledged the significant losses incurred by the Central Bank in 2022, attributing them to the government’s domestic debt restructuring efforts and the depreciation of the national currency, among other factors. He explained that the impairment of the bank’s debt holdings leading to these losses was a conditionality for the IMF program, emphasizing that no debts were forgiven by the Bank of Ghana.
Furthermore, the governor clarified that the decision to commence the construction of a new headquarters was made in 2019 when the bank was financially stable and allocated some of its profits for this purpose, asserting that it was not a crisis-driven decision.
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