Bank of Ghana Deserves Credit for Cushioning Us During Difficult Times - NPP Youth Organizer
National Youth Organizer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Salam Mustapha has jumped to the defence of the Bank of Ghana following the public backlash after the Minority in Parliament revealed the bank had run into losses to a tune of GH¢60.8 billion.
The Minority, addressing Journalists at their "Moment of Truth" event on Tuesday, revealed "the Bank of Ghana recorded a staggering loss of GHS60.8 billion, which is equivalent to $6 billion. This is twice the amount we are to receive from our recent IMF bailout".
They continued that, "the bank has also recorded a negative equity of over GHS55.1 billion. What this simply means is that the Bank of Ghana is insolvent" and blamed the incumbent government stating "the once prestigious Bank of Ghana, the mother of all banks in Ghana, has been bankrupted and collapsed by this NPP economic management team led by Dr Mahamudu Bawumia with the complicity of the Governor of the Central Bank".
The Minority also asked the Governor of the bank, Dr. Ernest Addison and his deputies to resign, blaming them for mismanaging the bank.
"This means the recklessness and mismanagement of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana has cost the nation twice what we are struggling and sacrificing to receive from the IMF amid major conditionalities", the leader of the Minority, Ato Forson said.
But Salam Mustapha has asked the public to cut the Bank of Ghana, particularly the Governor, some slack.
According to him, the bank authorities instead deserve credit emphasizing they cushioned the economy during the perilous times.
"Truthfully, this Bank of Ghana has done well in the face of very trying times. Extreme economic pressures that we have gone through, this Bank of Ghana has done well . . . When you check how we have ably kept the economy . . . I think the Bank of Ghana deserves some credit," he told Nana Yaw Kesseh on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo" show.
He added that the "Bank of Ghana is a regulator. It does not engage in trading like the commercial banks. Bank of Ghana does not do that. It regulates the financial space . . . and also principal advisor to government on financial issues" and stressed the huge expenditures of the bank are not a "one-line item. The amount also involves the financing of government".
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