New BoG head office 'not just simple, ordinary building' – Addison

The GHS250 million new head office being built by the Bank of Ghana did not start today, Governor Ernest Addison has said.

Providing some details about it at a press conference on Monday, 21 August 2023, Dr Addison said: "While discussions on a national security issue like the Central Bank building is a sensitive one, I will provide you with a brief history of how this has evolved over the years".

The Bank of Ghana, he said, "as far back as the 1990s, began the search for suitable and secured land for a new Head office. In 2012, the Bank was allocated an unnumbered 5.19-acre land at Accra Central by the Lands Commission which also had issues".

"The Bank did not have access to the land since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration refused to give the Bank vacant possession on the grounds that they had never agreed to give up ownership of the land", he continued.

He said the Bank continued to search for suitable land for its head office throughout the period from 2013 to 2016.

"More recently in 2018, the Bank approached the SIC to acquire its vacant land at Ridge near the Ridge Hospital. The Government issued an Executive Instrument to allow the Bank of Ghana acquire that Land and SIC was duly compensated".

The Bank, he added, "then began to plan the building of its new head office, taking into consideration the need to ensure the building meets all the requirements of a modern central bank of international standards (similar to central bank head office buildings in Abuja and Dakar), and includes provision for data centres, currency processes, vaults, and other sensitive installation".

"It is not just a simple ordinary building", Dr Addison pointed out.

"Let me re-emphasise that the Bank followed all the necessary public procurement processes in this endeavour. No procurement laws were broken. I have requested that a more detailed response to the issues raised in the public discourse on the Bank’s new head office building be published on our website immediately after this press engagement today".

He said the decision to commence construction was taken in 2019 when the Bank generated profits.

Appropriations for the head office were made each year from profits in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

The project, he noted, has, therefore, been going on for over 3 years.

"The DDEP only took place in January 2023. If we were to be taking the decision today, building a legacy head office would not have been a priority".

'However, this is a project that has been running for 3 years and about 50 per cent complete".

Dr Addison indicated that the Bank is "fully aware of its responsibilities to ensure that the costs do not escalate beyond reasonable levels and that many of the original design features to including data centre, currency processing centre, ICT equipment, specialised security features have been deferred and only grey boxes provided for future use to manage costs".

"Let me end by reassuring the public on the policy solvency of the Bank of Ghana to achieve its statutory mandate going forward. Every central bank’s credibility depends on its ability to achieve its mandate".

He said: "These technical losses do not jeopardise that ability and are sometimes the price to pay for achieving those aims. It is important that we place the central bank’s policy mandate ahead of profits", adding: "We must recognise the special character of Central Banks and the role they play in an economy".

He explained that Central Banks are institutions of public policy and "do not exist for profits but for national welfare and as such could have a negative equity position and continue to be policy effective".

"Very clear policies have been put in place to return to positive equity in the medium term. And as we do this, we will continue to rebuild our policy buffers to continue to provide the necessary assurance of policy support as we rebuild a stronger and a more resilient and inclusive economic post pandemic", Dr Addison assured the public.