Political science lecturer, Prof Ransford Gyampo, has expressed misgivings about the intentions and reasons of the Bank of Ghana in building a new headquarters in Accra.

According to him, the reasons and explanations provided by the Central Bank may be valid. However, he questioned why the BoG’s decision to build a new headquarters has not been imperative all this while.

Prof Gyampo contended that if the need for a new building waited when the economy was doing well, why couldn’t it wait when there is “economic miserization”.

“Is it that someone has stolen money and is trying to use this project to whitewash it? What is wrong with us? What is the inordinate fake sense of urgency in building a new office for the BoG all about? Political Curse be on any superior political authority who will one day not hold these guys accountable!”
Prof Ransford Gyampo

Furthermore, Prof Gyampo maintained that the Central Bank “can’t even be sensible about the times”, especially considering the current state of the economy. To this end, he stated that government must equally be austere in its dealings, as it is calling for the support of Ghanaians.

“They think we are all fools. They are telling us times are hard and that we should tighten our belts. Yet, they have a justification for spending huge sums of money on a new BoG building. My father told me that a bad thing is a good thing done at the wrong time. Is this not sensible? Why are they making it look like we are more sensible than them?”
Prof Ransford Gyampo

Minority rubbishes BoG’s reasons for new headquarters

Meanwhile, the National Democratic Congress has condemned the Central Bank’s reasons for the new headquarters and the huge sum of money involved. The party revealed that the “contrived justification” for the new BoG head office which is costing the taxpayer a colossal $250 million at this time of excruciating hardships for the nation is “bizarre”.

Contained in a statement, the NDC stated that the excuse that the current Bank of Ghana Head office is not earthquake resistant is most “ridiculous” to say the least.

“We need not remind the Bank of Ghana that previous Governors and Directors of the bank maximized the operations and profit of the bank from that same old facility by deploying more reasonable options of relocating aspects of the bank’s operations to the Cedi House and another facility of the Bank on the Spintex Road.”
National Democratic Congress

Among other things, the NDC also referenced Bank of Ghana’s statement, which it indicated does not address the most fundamental issue which has to do with the printing of money by BOG for the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government in 2021 and 2022 in clear contravention of Section 30 of the Bank of Ghana (Amendment) Act, 2016 (ACT 918).

It explained that throughout its statement, BOG does not and could not have offered any “reasonable justification” for printing a whopping GHS35 billion in 2021 and GHS42 billion in 2022 to finance the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government, in clear breach of their governing law.

Additionally, it stated that it is an “indisputable” fact, that the amount of monies printed by BOG for the “reckless” Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government both in 2021 and 2022 far exceeds the legally acceptable threshold of 5% of the previous fiscal years’ total revenue.

“This the Bank did without cognizance of the legal duty imposed on the Governor of BoG to inform the Minister of Finance, who is required upon notification from the Governor of BoG to notify Parliament of the attainment of the 5% threshold and/or the setting of a new limit of government’s borrowing.”
National Democratic Congress