Does it make sense? – Randy Abbey talks tough on BoG’s US$250m new office

Host of Good Morning Ghana show on Metro TV has spoken in harsh terms against the decision by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to build a new head office.

The facility, which is costed at US$250 million according to the Minority in Parliament, has attracted a lot of reactions since the apex bank confirmed that it was indeed building a new head office.

The BoG in response to a press statement by the minority stated last week that the new office complex was necessary principally for security and other reasons, stressing that the current location was not safe in the case of an earthquake.

For Randy Abbey, the decision to build a new office and the location chosen was not a problem except for the timing and the cost of the project.

“You use a quarter of a billion dollars to build an office, quarter of a billion dollars,” he stressed during a discussion with Fuseini Issah a former New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawmaker and Member of Parliament for Yapei Kusawgu, John Jinapor.

He continued: “I don’t have a problem with a new office… I have not heard anybody raise the issue of location, in fact, just a 100m from where they are building, is where you have the Ecobank building,” he pointed adding that he Ecobank building was built with 60 million dollars in contrast to the US$250m tag for the new BoG office.

“Does it make sense that the Central bank in a country like Ghana, in the situation we find ourselves in, in the last five years or so, wants to build a head office for a quarter of a billion dollars, does it make sense? It is the same mindset that will make us go to build a Cathedral,” he added.

On his part, the former lawmaker insisted that BoG has over time said that the activities of the Central Business District (CBD) has come to the high street and the bank started acquisition of space within the area until 2020 when it got current site through the executive instrument.

Watch his submission below: