Governor Of Bank Of Ghana Goofs!

I would be the first person to go after those who attack state institutions, because it does not promote good governance. But if state institutions display this level of incompetence, then you cannot help but to support the need to re-examine their activities.

When the President appointed the governor, the task he gave him was to go and handle the volatility in the exchange rate. Over the period, the evidence is there for everyone to see as to whether this responsibility has been effectively discharged.

But as is usual with Ghanaians, he has a secured tenure therefore if his actions will cause the fortunes of the president and for that matter impose hardships on Ghanaians, the verdict is ‘touch not my anointed’.

In his attempt to response to the criticism from Dr. Bawumia on the apparent distortions in the interbank exchange rate market, leading to a huge wedge between the interbank exchange rates as quoted by the Bank of Ghana and the Bureau rates, the governor inadvertently confirmed the position of Dr. Bawumia.

He says lack of liquidity in the interbank market lead to a lot of speculative activities, which explains the wedge. Interestingly, the Bureau rates picked up the speculative activities but the quoted Bank of Ghana interbank rates did not (Basic economic principle of demand and supply).

Surprisingly, the governor says the model they have been using has not changed, yet during the period of non-functioning of the interbank market due to lack of liquidity, the Bank could churn out rates. He was not even ashamed to say that the rates they churned out were from Reuters.

So if Reuters could get rates for the Bank of Ghana to use and the Bank’s exchange rate model went dead due to lack of data from a non-functioning interbank market, then how could the rates the Bank was quoting around those times reflect market conditions? At any rate what do the interbank rates quoted by the Bank of Ghana signal. Is this the explanation the governor would give to the IMF, should they ask for reasons why the wedge? God save the current discussions from such ineptitude!!!

The truth must be said that the rates quoted by the Bank of Ghana do not reflect market conditions and for that matter quite misleading. This was the same governor, after imposing on Ghanaians such autarkic and outmoded exchange rate measures, had the nerves to tell Ghanaians, after being compelled to withdraw them, that he did that due to implementation challenges.

Meaning he did not exhaustively consider all the ramifications of such a useless policy. No wonder in his recent appearance on Citi FM program, the Minister for Finance said that the withdrawal of the Bank of Ghana’s monetary policy measures have brought some stability in the exchange rate market, admitting to the fact that the policy measures were bogus.

It is crystal clear that the governor has disappointed both the president and Ghanaians. Currently all the hardships we are facing can be traced to the poor management of the exchange rate. His continuous stay means that Ghanaians should brace themselves up for more hardships. Surprisingly, the government claims it has embarked on a lot of developmental projects.

But what would be the essence of all these so called developmental projects if majority of Ghanaians cannot afford their usage due to bad economic policies.

The President may act now on such level of incompetence or leave with the consequences thereof!!!!