Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, former vice chancellor of the University of Ghana and secretary general of the African Research Universities Alliance, has disclosed that the Bank of Ghana has over the years developed an operational mechanism of self-correction – making it better than most public institutions.
According to him, the research output of the Bank for both academic and public policy considerations have greatly improved compared to the 1980s’ structural adjustment era of the economy; and this, he explained, has been due to the quality of developed human capacity built over the last thirty years.
Prof. Aryeetey said the Bank’s current leadership and what they are doing “is very pleasing.”
He made this comment during a program organized in Accra by the London School of Economics Alumni Association.
Commenting extensively about the Ghanaian economy, Professor Aryeetey noted that after 65 years of carrying out banking activities, there is a need for the Central Bank to use its operational independence to involve other stakeholders in pressing and unresolved issues – such as the imbalance of deposits and lending rates.
These, he explained, affect not only the manufacturing sector that contributes to the desired growth, but also agriculture, small-scale businesses and individuals.
More so, Mr. Kwame Pianim, a Ghanaian economist, in describing the competency of the Central bank – made reference to a book written by Ivor Agyeman-Duah titled “Central Banking in Ghana and the Governors- Institutional Growth and Economic Development.”
Mr. Pianim described the book as “felicitous and voluminous, but holds attention and also far from ordinary in terms of its coverage and content”; and that the author’s “eclectic and amazingly broad professional background is imprinted all over the pages and narrative”.
African Banks Urged To Contribute To Catch Up The Dynamic Nature Of Financial Sector
Baroness Valerie Amos, the Lady Companion of the Garter of the United Kingdom and currently Master of the University College of Oxford, remarked that the global multilateral system, especially the financial architecture, has changed and continues to change; and that what Africa can do is to be part of the big conversation at the table with a common voice.
She does not, she said, believe in the stark negative narrative of globalisation as marginalisation against the African continent.
Paul Yaw Boateng, the first Black British Cabinet Minister, who also served between 2000 and 2003 as Africa Minister, expressed worry about the current global turn of events since Ghana’s post-HIPC and the new dynamics of financial and energy crisis, coupled with instability in Northen Nigeria, Mali, the Sudan and South Sudan. These, he said, are not helpful but rather re-engineering indebtedness again in countries, including Ghana.
It can be recalled that during the launch of Ivor Agyeman-Duah’s book, the First Deputy Governor-Bank of Ghana, Dr. Maxwell Opoku-Afari said even though the book can be deemed a mirror that reflects the work of all the Banks’ Governors since its establishment – like a mirror, the reflection on work of any of the Governors may invariably differ depending on the reader’s economic philosophy or ideology.
“I am certain that the discussion on monetary policy, and many other contents of the book will provide a good basis for constructive and intellectual public discourse on the author’s views and assertions. Similarly, I trust that the author, being a seasoned scholar and academic, will readily respond to any constructive critique and commentary that may arise from economists, academics and other reviewers of this book.”
Dr. Maxwell Opoku
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