A Reform is Needed to Pay BoG Debt within Same Year – Dr Ernest

In recent news, the bank of Ghana (BoG) governor Dr. Addison says they need a reform to compel the government to pay debt within the same year.

The Bank of Ghana Governor, Dr. Ernest Addison has made a strong case for a reform in the Central Bank’s Act to compel the government to settle debt borrowed from the central bank within a year.

ALSO READ: Bank of Ghana makes GH₵10.5bn loss in 2023

According to the BoG governor, the inability for the government to pay debt on time is affecting the operations of the Central Bank, hence the need to be relooked at it.

In an interview with George Wiafe on PM Express Business Edition, Dr. Addison, the BoG governor, said the accumulation of debt in the last 20 years has not been the best, posing great challenges to the economy.

ALSO READ : Bank of Ghana is not Bankrupt – Otabil

“What I do but is to put into place reforms which will ensure that when government borrows, they pay back in the same year. Because what you see in the books of the Bank of Ghana, there are borrowings which go back as far as the PNDC days that have not paid”, the governor stressed.

The governor, Dr Ernest Addison, further said the recent losses made by the central bank (BoG) are due to the accumulation of unpaid loans by various governments since the PNDC days.

ALSO READ: IMF Commends BoG for rebuilding international reserves

“So when they say that the Bank of Ghana has made a loss of GH¢60 billion, it was not borrowed within one year. These are borrowings that have come since PNDC days. So you just have to go through the books and know which of them was borrowed within a particular year”, Dr Addison explained

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) over the years has therefore embarked on a comprehensive reform agenda, with the objective of cleaning up the sector and strengthening the regulatory and supervisory framework for a more resilient banking sector.