The Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has accused the governors of the Bank of Ghana of using the intellectual property of Ghanaian entrepreneur and development finance specialist, Kofi Arkaah without his permission.

He accuses the Bank of Ghana of using a major policy initiative on a technical model Mr. Kofi Arkaah developed and shared with one of their most senior officials, only for the Bank of Ghana to use his initiative without acknowledgment.

In a lengthy article, Mr. Simons asserted that there is overwhelming evidence to prove his case, including the draft model, and underlying data on how to develop an optimal gold reserves policy for Ghana. He said that the policy was designed with the country’s inflation-targeting regime in mind, and it was expected to carefully manage the ratio between gold reserves and overall gross international reserves.

“Mr. Arkaah has shown a trail of correspondence to this author which establishes clearly that he did share with a very senior official at the central bank a draft model, and underlying data, on how to develop an optimal gold reserves policy for Ghana. One that would complement the country’s inflation-targeting regime and bolster the national currency by carefully managing the ratio between gold reserves and overall gross international reserves.”
Bright Simons

Mr. Simmons, writing on behalf of Arkaah, accuses the Bank of Ghana of conducting a series of studies on Mr. Arkaah’s policy initiative a few days after the senior official had a rethink of his decision to help refine the model.

While Mr. Simmons has no reservations with the Governor of the Bank of Ghana crediting the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, as the brain behind the Gold Purchase Program, he believes that Mr. Arkaah deserved some recognition for his work that was used by the bank in designing that program.

He was careful to note that while not all intellectual property suits against central banks are successful, all those cases involved patents, not copyrights. He reminded officials of the Bank that their use of Mr. Arkaah’s work without his permission is a violation of international copyright laws, which may have reputational consequences.

Advise For African Country’s To Back Currency With Gold

Mr. Kofi Arkaah has claimed that he is not interested in achieving cheap popularity but rather in encouraging many African countries to use his model in their decisions to back their currency with gold so that they ‘do not fall into the same trap that the likes of Zimbabwe did when they went down that road without a well-calibrated model’.

He is however displeased that the Bank of Ghana is using his ideas to score cheap political points, instead of using the opportunity to encourage dialogues with the academic community so that the model can be enhanced to achieve its maximum impact. He said that it was unfortunate technocrats at the Bank of Ghana, who are expected to protect the independence of their institution, and develop sharp technocratic skills and practice, are now seriously involved in cheap politics.

“Moreover, the documented allegations of appropriation of intellectual property, without even the basic trivial courtesy of acknowledgment, reinforce a pattern of impunity, which the Ghanaian central bank has been oft accused of perpetrating.”
Kofi Arkaah

To support this claim, he referenced the failure of the Bank of Ghana to publish any authority on the Gold for Oil program or the Gold Purchase Program so that experts would subject them to proper scrutiny.

Mr. Arkaah emphasized that he remains committed to his ‘intellectual campaign about optimal gold reserves and ideal ratio’ and so the attitude of the officials at the Bank of Ghana cannot deter him from this agenda.