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Bernard Allotey Jacobs has fired salvoes at the Minority in Parliament over their persistent demand for the removal of the Governor of Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison and his deputies.

The Minority has served notice to picket the BoG if the Governor and the deputies do not resign within 21 days.

Accusations

They accuse the Governors of mismanaging the bank, hence incurring 60 billion losses.

“The Bank of Ghana recorded a staggering loss of GHS60.8 billion, which is equivalent to $6 billion. This is twice the amount we are to receive from our recent IMF bailout”, the Minority said at their “Moment of Truth” engagement with the media days ago.

They added; “The bank has also recorded a negative equity of over GHS55.1 billion. What this simply means is that the Bank of Ghana is insolvent" and blamed the incumbent government stating "the once prestigious Bank of Ghana, the mother of all banks in Ghana, has been bankrupted and collapsed by this NPP economic management team led by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia with the complicity of the Governor of the Central Bank.”

Clarifications

The Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Addison, setting the record straight, says the BoG's 60 billion loss was a timely intervention to rescue Ghana from collapsing resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia/Ukraine war.

"The Bank of Ghana, following prudent management, had built enough buffers and policy space, which enabled it to trigger the emergency financing exception under Section 30(6)) of the Bank of Ghana Act, Act 612 as amended, to provide the needed additional financing support through the purchase of GHC10 billion of the Government’s Covid-19 bonds, which helped to close the exceptional financing gap", he said, adding that "these interventions from the Bank of Ghana, the IMF, and the World Bank, helped the government to navigate and effectively contain the devastating effects of the pandemic".

He also recounted that "the Bank of Ghana was able to step in with the support to the economy until the IMF programme was concluded, because of the policy buffers built, following years of prudent management" and asserted that "this is a reflection of the resilience of the Bank of Ghana for being able to rise up to the occasion to play its statutory role as the lender of last resort to support the economy during the crisis".

The Minority still holds their position and readying to picket the bank in protest against the Governors.

Minority Has No Power 

But the former NDC Central Regional Chairman, Allotey Jacobs says the Minority "do not have that power to remove the Governor and his two deputies".

To him, what the Minority should rather be doing is to engage the Governor to disabuse their minds of the misconceptions and notions of misdemeanor instead of they threatenig to picket the bank.

"They should be serious. There are various avenues for them to invite the man, sit with the man and then get some kind of explanation from him like he has done," he told Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show.

"If Ghana's economy had collapsed, would they go to Parliament? Would they be receiving their salaries?", he blasted the Minority.

Allotey Jacobs however advised the BoG management to also be proactive in their interaction with the public to dispel the illusions about them and the bank.

"I believe the Governor and his two deputies, they will take a lesson out of this. Next time any issue that will crop up from somewhere, they will quickly react on it."