BoG insolvency: Ghana in economic doldrums, hold stakeholder meeting – Atuahene to government

Banking and Financial Consultant, Dr. Richard Atuahene has called on the government to as a matter of urgency call a stakeholder meeting in order to salvage the country from economic challenges.

This comes on the back of the Central Bank facing serious insolvency challenges.

Ghana’s government has written off half of the 77.6 billion cedis which is equivalent to $7 billion it owed to the Central Bank and replaced the remainder with a lower yielding, 15-year bond, three sources with direct knowledge of the transaction told Reuters.

The latest move is part of the West African nation’s push to restructure its domestic debt – a requirement to qualify for the next tranche of a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue loan. Ghana now wants to focus on negotiations with external creditors.

Speaking on Morning Starr with Francis Abban Monday, Dr. Atuahene stated that the Central Bank and the government would not have found themselves in the currency situation if they had heeded to advise.

“We are battling on two fronts so when people say that the economy is recovering four point something, I begin to wonder what figures they are using because when you calculate all these it is the banking sector that will support the private sector. The private sector leads to employment, it leads to economic growth. If the banking sector is not going to do what is expected of it as the regulator is not capable of doing that how is the economy?

“We are in economic doldrums, we need to have a stakeholder meeting. When you talk about it people don’t want to believe, people think that people are arrogant. I believe that if we have had stakeholder discussions we look at the alternatives. Maybe we wouldn’t have found ourselves where the Central Bank is now insolvent and the banking sector is facing a crisis,” the Banking Consultant stated.