There is fire at the country’s apex bank, anomaly which prompts undeniable consternation.
Making such a gargantuan loss, GH¢44 billion, must be speaking to the quality of management at the mother of all banks in the country. Such a worrying situation should definitely have far-reaching repercussions on the joint stock banks which operate under the aegis of the apex bank.
Having been saved by the bell when charges against the current Governor were dropped National Democratic Congress (NDC) style upon assuming power, such bad press is not what Dr. Johnson Pandit Asiama wants during this rare second term at the headship of the apex bank.
The light at the end of the tunnel is dull for the apex bank under the current leadership; the books are not posting an enviable performance.
We have observed an unusual practice in the administration of the apex bank in the light of the shenanigans being exuded by the Asiama-led administration. Perhaps the unusualness of the times in its history vis-à-vis the downturn in its fortunes are accounting for this picture.
For the first time in the history of the Bank of Ghana, bloggers, not the traditional media, were engaged to provide an added bastion against the growing opprobrium against the institution’s unusual loss or to put it alternatively, reverse the negative press the apex bank has attracted in the past week.
Some of the excuses being put out for the loss are so feeble and senseless that we wish the cornered Governor should have expunged them from the action list. Desperation could have accounted for his claiming that the loss has saved the economy.
Pumping in so much to achieve unsustainable fiscal figures which do not even reflect in the lot of the average Ghanaian is such a useless pathway. If managing the economy is that easy, previous administrations would have chosen it.
We have taken note of a deliberate attempt by this government through its various assigns, including those previously serving as the conscience of the nation, to throw dust into the eyes of the citizens even before the announced loss by the Bank of Ghana.
But for the revelation by the Minority and other observers of the economy against the backdrop of the Bank of Ghana’s under-stated loss, more dust would have been thrown into the eyes of Ghanaians.
It is outright bunkum to point at similar losses incurred by the previous apex bank’s operations under the Akufo-Addo government. For a government just coming out of a COVID-19 pandemic when productivity was zero and utilities were not being paid for, even as workers idled at home but remunerated, the relatively low loss recorded by the apex bank at the time deserves plaudits, not political scorn as the NDC seeks to do.
An apex bank, because of its special role in the economic architecture of the country, should be spared the usual propaganda of the NDC and allowed to operate in consonance with its core mandate.