The Nhyiaeso MP, Dr Stephen Amoah says the Minority’s intended protest against the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison and his two deputies is to simply an act for political capital.

According to him, as the election period draws nigh, “they [Minority] will embark on all sort of activities to get people into making arbitrary decisions and then vote for them.”

“We should all know that what they are doing is basically to have some sort of political capital because we are getting to next year's election,” he said in an interview on Joy FM’s Top Story on Wednesday.

The Minority is calling for the head of Bank of Ghana’s Governor, Dr Ernest Addison together with his two deputies.

Also read: https://myjoyonline.com/bog-governor-deputies-must-resign-within-21-days-minority/

The Minority, on August 21 notified the police about its intended protest on September 5 against the bank's governor over the bank's GH¢60.8 billion in 2022.

They further said the action has been triggered by the central bank’s illegal printing of over GH¢80 billion to the Akufo-Addo government.

They also accused the governor of incompetence in managing the bank, adding that the bank has virtually collapsed.

However, the Deputy Trade Minister pointed out that the issue of the bank's GH¢60.8 billion in 2022 is technical.

According to him, if the NDC were in power, they wouldn’t have been able to prevent the loss from happening or mitigate its impact, adding that the “impact would have been higher than what we are having.”

Read also: https://myjoyonline.com/minority-notifies-police-set-to-protest-on-september-5-against-bog-governor-deputies/

Meanwhile, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Ernest Addison has explained that the central bank did not provide funding for the government until 2020 and 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic and after investors in the capital market declined from lending to the government.

According to him, the central bank strictly adhered to the zero financing of government expenditure until the economic difficulties set in last year.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, August 21, Dr Addison said financing of government policies last year was undertaken with prior consultation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“It is not true that the Bank of Ghana has been providing financing for government every year. There has been zero financing in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021. The Bank of Ghana has only had to support in the pandemic year of 2020, and in the crisis year of 2022”, he stressed.

He pointed out that the BoG Act as amended limits financing of the government to 5 percent of the previous year’s tax revenue.

“This provision in the law has been adhered to since I took office in April 2017, between 2017 and 2019. In addition to the requirement of the Act, the bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Finance to even impose the tighter restriction of zero Central Bank financing and this was observed strictly even though the MOUs were not legally binding.”