The Minority caucus in Parliament has formally informed the Ghana Police Service of their plans to stage a protest demanding the resignation of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison, and his two deputies.
Mahama Ayariga, Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, sent a letter to the Greater Accra Regional Police command outlining their grievances and intentions.
The protest is scheduled for Tuesday, July 30, 2024, from 8 am to 6 pm in Accra, Greater Accra Region.
Starting at Obra Spot in Kwame Nkrumah Circle, the demonstrators will march through Adabraka to Kingsway and culminate at the Bank of Ghana headquarters.
The protest is centered around concerns regarding the ongoing construction of the BoG’s new headquarters in North Ridge.
“The Governor of the Central Bank and his board continue to engage in wasteful spending on the new Bank of Ghana Corporate head office building and refuse to answer questions on the latest cost of the building which, we are told, has now further escalated to over Two Hundred and Seventy Million United States Dollars (USD$270 million) from its original estimated cost of USD81,882,640.00.
“The Governor again has embarked on the construction of a new house for the Governor himself at a speculated cost of Forty Million United States Dollars (USD$40million) and has refused to disclose to us the actual cost when the Minority wrote to him requesting the information on the cost of the Governor’s house under construction.”
The caucus members organized a comparable protest on October 3, 2023, in response to the Bank’s reported GH¢60.81 billion loss in the 2022 fiscal year.
“Governor Addison has acted illegally in printing money for government without recourse to Parliament and similarly wrote off about GH¢48.4 billion of government debt. After the BoG recorded a colossal loss of over GH¢60.8 billion and negative equity of over GH¢55 billion we concluded that the bank has become insolvent. This is now confirmed by the BoG request for recapitalization by Central Government,” the Minority’s letter added.