Your PhD from Harvard did not stop the cedi from moving from GH¢4 to GH¢12 for $1 – Kwesi Pratt jabs BoG 'academics'

Veteran journalist and managing editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has descended heavily on the officials of the Bank of Ghana over the state of Ghana’s economy.

Speaking at an Arise Ghana event, in Accra, on Thursday, August 31, 2023, Kwesi Pratt the officials of the Bank of Ghana, including the governor, only pride themselves with their academic qualifications but are helpless when it comes to the running of the economy.

He added that with all their academic qualifications, the academics at the central bank could not stop the meltdown of Ghana’s economy.

“Nonsense… all of those universities and those degrees have not prevented the cedi from losing value from GHS4.20 to $1, today, we are exchanging the cedi at GHS12 for $1. No Harvard degree managed to stop this. So, don't waste our ears with your Harvard degree. We don't care,” he said.

The veteran journalist made these remarks as he was kicking against the notion that statutory state institutions, like the Bank of Ghana and their heads, should be treated as independent and devoid of interference by the central government.

According to him, it does not make sense that the president of the republic who appoints the heads of these state institutions is answerable to the people of Ghana but these heads, like the governor of the Bank of Ghana, are not.

Pratt, therefore, called for a review of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana so these state institutions can be checked.

Mr. Pratt, who was particularly not happy about the independence of the Bank of Ghana, indicated that academics and the technocrats at the central bank have messed up Ghana’s economy because they answer to nobody.

“The independence of the governor and so on must be thrown into the wastepaper basket, thrown into the dustbin. It has no relevance throughout our history. In whatever we do, it is the will of the people which does matter.

“In whatever we do, it is that taxi driver, that ‘nika nika’ operator, that chop bar operator, it is their while, their interest which must move us forward and not the interest of some godforsaken academics, whose only boast is that they went to Harvard and they have doctorates in economics and so on,” he said.

Watch his remarks in the video below:



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