Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has advised Ghanaians to refrain from directly attacking the leadership of the Bank of Ghana.

According to him, all efforts will be made to restore the balance sheet of the Central Bank in the medium term, continue to improve the efficiency of their operations, and resort to the government for recapitalization over the medium to long term if necessary.

This has been indicated by the Board of Directors of the Central Bank in their 2022 annual reports.

“As the Minister for Finance, I do have opinions about the reforms needed to strengthen the governance of many financial institutions including the Bank of Ghana. But this requires a positive and sober national debate on the governance structure; should we, for example, revisit a separate chairmanship and governorship (such was the case prior to governor Dr. Agama’s years) and whether our democracy and institutional experience support Governors playing both board leadership and management roles as enshrined in our laws”, he indicated in an article titled ““Standing strong with the Central Bank”.

“We also need to have the discourse for policy clarity on what the operational independence of the Central Bank implies, especially in a Lower-Middle Income Country and transformational economies such as ours. I do personally believe that Central Banks must have independence in executing their monetary policy mandate especially if it is based on a price target, where the government sets the price targets, and Central Banks, in our case, BoG, independently uses its operational tools to achieve it”, he pointed out.

Continuing, Mr. Ofori-Atta said “Governor Addison, just like me, has faced major economic hurdles since 2017, inheriting a derailed International Monetary Fund programme and a highly impaired and ethically strained financial industry from our predecessors, having to navigate the serious revenue shocks on the back of Covid-19 and distortions to our supply chain induced by both Covid-19 and international geopolitics”.

In resolving these, he said, the government had to make sacrifices, and the Bank of Ghana’s balance sheet was significantly affected.

Decision to build BoG office made before losses

With respect to the Bank of Ghana’s new headquarters, the Finance Minister said the evidence is clear that decisions to build had already been made long before these “losses” occurred.

“It is important for us to support such a critical institution to modernize its operations and have a befitting office space for a country that hosts the AfCFTA and has a vision to become the financial services hub of the continent”.

He said that Governor Addison is a competent professional of quiet courage, adding, “In these nearly seven years, we have worked together to ensure: the inviolability of the banking system; the establishment of the Consolidated Bank of Ghana (CBG) and the Development Bank of Ghana; the raising of over $10 billion in the Eurobond market and AfriExim bank”.

He brought inflation down to single digits of 7.9% for the first time; and managed an impressive period of currency stability in our country including the implementation of the Gold-for-Oil programme, Mr. Ofori-Atta said, adding, “It is either simply the height of irony or a sad reflection of the state of public discourse in our country that this man, steps up in a period of unprecedented global economic meltdown and domestic economic crises, and he is being pilloried for his good work”.