Kwamena Duncan
A leading member of the New Patriotic Party and former Central Regional Minster, Kwamena Duncan, has said that the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and his deputies deserve to be commended and celebrated for saving the economy.
He noted that the BoG Governor, Dr. Ernest Addison, and his deputies Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari and Elsie Addo Awadzi provided the needed support to keep the economy going.
Speaking on Accra-based Peace FM, Mr Duncan noted that because of BoG’s intervention, the majority of the citizenry questioned whether Ghana was in crisis.
He noted that people did not hear “that interest payments were not being paid in early 2022, they did not see queues at the pumps for petrol and diesel, there were no shortages of essential items on the market. And they did not hear that public sector workers including civil servants, the police, and the military are not being paid their salaries.”
Minority rant
The Minority in Parliament during a news conference this month called for the resignation of the central bank boss and his deputies over what it described as mismanagement after the bank posted losses totaling GHC60.81 billion for the 2022 financial year as against a profit of GHC1.23 billion recorded in 2021.
The losses were a result of the government’s domestic debt restructuring activities and the depreciation of the cedi, among other effects.
Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson said they will stage a march to occupy the Bank of Ghana if the trio does not step down.
“We call for the resignation of the governor of the central bank and his deputies within 21 days from today,” he said. “We are resolved to embark on popular action to occupy the central bank and drive out the team of inept, callous, and criminal mismanagers of the finances of this country and save the Bank of Ghana,” he had said.
IMF consent
The NPP stalwart further noted that but for the intervention of the BoG the economy would have crumbled in 2022 adding that it is only an unappreciative citizenry that will see no good in that deed.
“This is what the Governor and his Deputies, this is what they chose to do to get this country going, this is what they did. It is only an unappreciative citizenry, it is only an opposition that wants power at all course, an opposition that unfortunately we have known and witnessed their period in office whose leader was John Mahama that will query this,” he said.
He continued that the IMF urged the Bank of Ghana to support the economy after a meeting with the Ministry of Finance and other stakeholders.
“A meeting with the IMF, the Ministry of Finance, and all the stakeholders, the IMF said we can’t leave a vacuum, you have to continue to support the government. If you compare with other governments elsewhere, Ghana is better off.”
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