Dean of the University of Cape Coast Business School Professor John Gatsi has slammed the recent article by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, calling on Ghanaians to support the Bank of Ghana and its Governor.
Titled ‘Standing Strong with the Bank of Ghana’, the article written on Wednesday, September 13 and published on Thursday lauds the Governor of BoG, Dr Ernest Yedu Addison.
But, according to Prof. John Gatsi, there was no need to write such an article due to the comments and commentaries been in the aftermath of BOG’s loss.
He guessed, however, that the Finance Minister had to jump to Dr Addison’s defence because he asked for the Central Bank’s support.
“I believe the Governor was affected. It affected his psyche, so he complained to the Finance Minister, that is why he is here to support him and this is because he asked BoG to come support the budget,” Prof Gatsi said on Ghana Tonight on TV3 on Thursday, September 14.
“The Finance Minister has not said anything new that the Governor has not said. Besides Ghanaians believe the Finance Minister caused BoG’s loss and the reasons he is giving do not add up.”
Prof. Gatsi further added that the Finance Minister has depleted BoG’s strength to the extent that the institution cannot manage its own affairs the way it is supposed to do.
Bank of Ghana’s duty is to support ailing commercial banks but the central bank currently is not able to perform this task.
“Ghana is currently looking for $15billion to establish commercial banks in the country but BoG is not able to help hence we are looking elsewhere, looking for other institutions to come do that because BOG cannot do that.”
He further cautioned BoG to protect its mandate than to be rendered not worthy by the current Finance Minister.
By Clara Boadi Konadu|3news.com|Ghana