BoG rewards its staff excessively while failing to achieve its core mandate - Togbe Afede XIV

The Agbogbomefia of Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV, has expressed frustration over the fiscal and monetary conditions of the country, which is currently under an IMF bailout program.

He specifically criticised the apex bank for reneging on its responsibility to achieve price stability or financial sector stability, which is part of its core mandate.

He mentioned that the Central Bank instead rewards its staff with excessively huge salaries, especially in 2023, when the average employee costs the bank over GH¢73,000 per month.

He further opined that Ghana would have filed for bankruptcy if it were a company after the country defaulted on its external debts in 2022, forcing it to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a financial bailout over a three-year period.

"We are victims of bad policies and decisions by our fiscal and momentary authorities. I cannot go into details about those, but recently, we all became aware of the Bank of Ghana putting up a head office building in which they are investing more than US$250 million of our money, 0.35 % of our GDP. That should not have been happening in a serious country," he said during a speech at the 2024 Asogli Te Za Grand Durbar.

"This is an organisation [Bank of Ghana] that also rewards its staff excessively while failing to achieve the price stability or financial sector stability that are their mandates. In 2023, the average employee cost the bank over GH¢73,000 per month, not a year! So, we can see the unfairness and lack of justice in our country," Togbe Afede XIV lamented.

Last year, the construction of the new Bank of Ghana headquarters generated various debates after the Central Bank recorded losses worth GH¢60 billion in 2022.

Reports indicated that the bank paid approximately US$250 million for the project.

National Democratic Congress legislators and a cross-section of Ghanaians questioned the relevance of the move, especially when the bank had recorded net losses in 2022 and 2023.

However, the Central Bank has occasionally clarified that its current building is unable to withstand shocks in the event of earthquakes and other natural disasters.

It also added that the project could not have been halted since earlier costs had already been incurred.

In response, Special Advisor to the BoG Governor, Stephen Opata, said, "This project was already well advanced. Stopping it midway would not have been the best decision under the circumstances."

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will be the special guest of honor at the ceremony, scheduled to start at 10 am. The event is strictly by invitation.

MA