Joe Jackson predicts friction between Ofori Atta and BoG Governor

A Financial Analyst with the Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson, has predicted that there is going to be tension between the reappointed Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Dr Ernest Addison and the Finance Minister-Designate Ken Ofori Atta if the former finance Minister’s appointment is eventually approved by parliament.

Mr Jackson explained in an interview with Johnnie Hughes on 3FM Tuesday, February 2 that Dr Addison has made some public utterances which suggest that he is not going to dole out cash to the government in the manner that he did when the BoG supported the government with GHS10billion to deal with the impact of the coronavirus on the economy.

This decision of the BoG boss, Mr Jackson said, is likely to create problems for the government since the Coronavirus keeps wreaking havoc on the local economy.

In his view, the government will continue to rely on the central bank in dealing with the effect of the virus.

Mr Jackson who was discussing the reappointment of Dr Addison said “In the next four years, there is going to be tension between the finance minister and the governor. The governor last year gave a bailout of 10billion in May 2020 to close fiscal gaps but the governor has come out clearly to say he is not going to do it again in a public statement, so please, let us not link them together. In any case our public sector debt has ballooned and we are in danger of defaulting.”

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reappointed Dr Ernest Addison as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for another four-year term.

The appointment takes effect from March 30, 2021, pending the constitutionally required consultation with the yet to be re-constituted Council of State.

In March 2017, President Akufo-Addo forwarded Dr Addison’s name to the Council of State for consideration and approval as the governor of the Central Bank.

He was subsequently approved and then appointed as the governor on 1 April 2017.

Dr Addison, after completing his doctorate at McGill, returned to Ghana and joined the Bank of Ghana in 1994 as an economist. He rose through the ranks to become the Deputy Chief and Head of the Economic Analysis and Policy Division of the Research Department.

He was a member of several committees including the Open Market Operations Committee, Money Market Auction Committee and the Editorial Committee and also secretary to the Financial Programme Implementation Committee and the Financial Policies Committee.

He chaired an Economic Community of West African States Task Force set up by the Authority of Heads of State of ECOWAS to perform feasibility studies culminating in the setting up of the West African Monetary Institute.

Dr Addison served as the chief economist with the West African Monetary Institute from 2000 to 2003.

Prior to leaving the Bank of Ghana, he worked under Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, who was then its governor and later became Vice-President of Ghana.

In 2012, Addison was a lead economist at the African Development Bank’s Southern African Resource Centre in Pretoria, South Africa.