International Monetary Fund (IMF) has assigned a Resident Advisor to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to oversee financial sector supervision in the country.
The fund appointed Leonard Chumo, an Irish and Kenyan, to the central bank this month to provide technical assistance and help build the capacity of the banking supervision function of the regulator for next three years.
Mr Chumo started his assignment in BoG on February 6, 2023
A statement released by BoG on Tuesday, February 14, said that the appointment was at the behest of BoG and will be fully funded by Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
It stressed that “The Adviser’s placement is a continuation of cooperation in this area between BoG, the IMF and SECO that started as early as in 2015 and had already seen the assignment of a previous Adviser until 2018.
“Achievements from the past collaborative efforts include the passage of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930), the development and issuance of the Corporate Governance Directive 2018, and the Capital Requirement Directive 2018.”
Touching on the experience of the appointee, IMF said Mr Chumo brings first-hand knowledge of supervisory work from leading central banks as well as previous technical assistance experience in the Western Africa region.
“Among others, he will support the implementation of Pillar two and three of the Basel II/III capital frameworks, as well as strengthen the Risk-Based Supervisory framework at BoG.
“BoG wishes to express its utmost appreciation to SECO for the continued funding of long-term technical experts from the IMF to the bank,” the statement said.
Ghana is taking concrete steps to strike a three-year US$3 billion deal with the IMF to help bring the economy back on track.
It is believed that the support will help arrest the cedi depreciation and stabilise inflation rate of the country.
By Vincent Kubi