Senior Lecturer at the Kumasi Technical University, Dr Samuel Afriyie, is alarmed by the amount of money spent by the Bank of Ghana on communication during the 2022 fiscal year.
The Annual Report and Financial Statement of the Bank of Ghana reveals that the institution spent GHS32,020,000 on Communication.
The BoG noted that the major item under communication is electronic data transmission
charges, including the Reuters and Bloomberg platforms which support its reserve management and management of petroleum funds as well as currency and exchange rate constituted about 57.4% of the total communications cost.
This was followed by the publications and Gazettes (15%), Advertisement (10%), Newspapers local (0.75%) and Newspapers foreign (0.46%).
The jump in computer expenses was mainly the result of the Bank’s asset
replacement policy which was implemented in 2022 where most of the Desktop computers were replaced with laptops.
All these hardware and software license purchases were in US dollars and the exchange rate depreciation and the inflation both domestically and globally impacted the cedi equivalent on the books of the central bank.
Speaking on Hello FM on August 10, Dr Samuel Afriyie, noted that the reasons being provided by the Central Bank do not add up.
He questioned the large sums of money spent on visiting the sites of Bloomberg and Reuters.
Concerned by the figure, he quizzed the Bank if it was running an advertisement for the late Queen Elizabeth II.
He said: “They cannot convince us. If you use data to check Bloomberg.. How is that expensive. We all use that site. Some of these things we need to be careful. I thought they had built a pole but heading to Bloomberg and Reuters…
“It’s like when you do something you look for ways and means to make things balance, but they need to come and convince us.
“Why, do you adversite for the Queen on Bloomberg? It is a data platform where you get information. How much would you pay?” he quizzed.