BoG brouhaha: What's the basis for your picketing? When it ends, what happens? - Minority queried

Atik Mohammed has slammed the Minority for refusing to back down and rescind their decision to picket the Bank of Ghana following the explanations offered by the Governor, Dr. Ernest Addison, regarding the Central Bank's 60 billion Ghana cedis loss last year.

The Governor and his deputies have been asked by the Minority to resign, accusing them of mismanaging the bank.

“The Bank of Ghana recorded a staggering loss of GHS60.8 billion, which is equivalent to $6 billion. This is twice the amount we are to receive from our recent IMF bailout”, the Minority quoted during their “Moment of Truth” engagement with the media.

They added; “The bank has also recorded a negative equity of over GHS55.1 billion. What this simply means is that the Bank of Ghana is insolvent" and blamed the incumbent government stating "the once prestigious Bank of Ghana, the mother of all banks in Ghana, has been bankrupted and collapsed by this NPP economic management team led by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia with the complicity of the Governor of the Central Bank.”

But Dr. Addison, clarifying the issues, has explained that "the Bank of Ghana, following prudent management, had built enough buffers and policy space, which enabled it to trigger the emergency financing exception under Section 30(6)) of the Bank of Ghana Act, Act 612 as amended, to provide the needed additional financing support through the purchase of GHC10 billion of the Government’s Covid-19 bonds, which helped to close the exceptional financing gap".

He further said, "these interventions from the Bank of Ghana, the IMF, and the World Bank, helped the government to navigate and effectively contain the devastating effects of the pandemic".

"The Bank of Ghana was able to step in with the support to the economy until the IMF programme was concluded, because of the policy buffers built, following years of prudent management.

"This is a reflection of the resilience of the Bank of Ghana for being able to rise up to the occasion to play its statutory role as the lender of last resort to support the economy during the crisis."

Atik Mohammed, speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show, wonders why the Minority still wants to picket the bank even after the Governor offering what he strongly believes are sound clarifications for incurring the 60 billion loss.

"What is the basis of the picketing?...Even though I'm an advocate of free expression, when the picketing ends, what happens? Will the picketing give you the answers you are looking for?", he questioned.

He also questioned the Minority's demand for the Governor and his deputies to resign, stressing the constitution clearly specifies the offence(s) to dismiss the Governors.

He noted that the conditions that apply to the Justice of a superior court are what apply to the Governors of the Bank of Ghana.

"What are the conditions under which a Judge of a superior court can be dismissed? The person should have either stolen or is not of a sound mind or done something that contravenes the law. In all of these, which applies to the Governor," he stated.