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The minority caucus has said President Nana Akufo-Addo must address the nation on the GHS60.8 billion loss of the Bank of Ghana in 2022 as well as the GHS55.1 billion equity recorded for the same period.
“Given the unprecedented collapse of our central bank, it is imperative for the President of Ghana to urgently address the nation”, Minority Leader Cassiel Ato Forson said on Facebook.
He said: “During this address, the President should outline the decisive actions that the government plans to implement in order to restore solvency to the Bank of Ghana”.
The minority has given BoG Governor Ernest Addison a 21-day ultimatum to resign from office or they would storm tye central bank to chase him out.
Responding to the minority, Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu described as misplaced, the caucus’ concerns about the Governor of the Bank of Ghana’s “mismanagement” of the central bank.
Speaking on the matter, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu admonished the minority against making “everything about NPP and NDC”.
The Suame MP told Oman FM: “Ato Forson should have known better because he has held the position of deputy minister of finance before and knows the operations of the Bank of Ghana.
So, if you politicise issues of the BoG, it is not good for the country”.
He said: “There is no law that mandates the BoG to report its daily activities to parliament”, adding: “The law only mandates the BoG to report foreign exchange receipts to parliament and the BoG has always complied to this provision”.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the central bank “does not report directly to parliament”.
The Constitution,he argued, “says that if you pass any law that is inconsistent with the Constitution, that law is null and void”, pointing out: “It’s either the minority are over exaggerating issues or have not had time to examine the facts of the matter”.
The minister of parliamentary affairs said the “response from the BoG addresses all the inconsistencies and falsehoods peddled against the institution”.
He acknowledged that: “Yes, the country went through some difficulties which required that the BoG must intervene”, arguing: “If not the international reserves built by the BoG, which was close to GHS10 billion, we would have really suffered”.
“The BoG supported the country with about GHS4 billion of its GHS10 billion international reserves to support the situation”, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu noted.
He said “Sri Lanka found itself in the same economic situation but because its central bank was not in a position to support, their situation got worse and have still not ben able to recover”.
“If the BoG supports the country to recover, it is unfair to call for the head of the governor because they made losses”, he underscored.
“The concerns of the minority are misplaced”, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu insisted, stressing: “The BoG has been in parliament to already explain why it is building a new head office”.
“The West African Monetary Zone has been relocated to Ghana and it operates within the precincts of BoG but that has not been possible because of the limited space at the BoG.
So, the building of the new head office is expected to address this as well”.
“Also, the countries in West Africa have thrown their weight behind Ghana to host the head quarters of the secretariat to deal with the agenda towards a single currency”.
“So, the building of the new head office is also expected to help in this direction”.
