The Minority in Parliament is turning the heat on the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, who they say should resign or be sacked.
According to the Deputy Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, Dr. Addison has been incompetent in his handling of the cedi’s depreciation and inflation.
He added that “the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, since he assumed office has borrowed in excess of 7billion dollars on the balance sheet of BoG and thrown those dollars at the cedi.
“Today, Dr. Addison is in trouble to find the dollars to go and pay those loans. Some he called break finance, some he called swaps, some he called repurchased agreement. Today, Dr Addison is in the market looking for dollars to pay up for his own mess; that is the problem.”
“How can Dr. Addison still be the Governor of the Central Bank? I call on Dr. Addison as a matter of urgency to exit that office and give Ghana the chance to clear the mess that he has created …Dr Addison must be sacked. Otherwise, he must have the conscience to resign as the Governor of the Central Bank,” he said while addressing the media on Tuesday.
Mr. Isaac Adongo also claimed that the government has borrowed more than 70 billion Ghana cedis illegally from the Central Bank which he says is a contributory factor to the cedi’s abysmal performance.
He noted that there are strict rules on how the Government of Ghana can borrow from the Bank of Ghana, adding that due to these rules, the “Bank of Ghana should not have lent more than five percent of the previous revenue cumulatively to the government.”
“Dr. Addison has been financing government and paying maturing debt obligations on the domestic market that the government cannot fund. We are currently looking at something in excess of 70billion dollars of illegal borrowing by Government of Ghana through the Bank of Ghana.”
He said that the consistent increase in policy rate is as a result of Dr. Addison’s attempt to recover those GH₵70 billion to the banking sector and back to the Bank of Ghana.
