Thousands of Ghanaian opposition members marched through the streets of the capital on Tuesday, demanding the central bank governor be fired for surging prices in the West African nation.
The National Democratic Congress party protested in Accra, calling for Governor Ernest Addison and his two deputies — Maxwell Opoku-Afari and Elsie Addo Awadzi — to leave the institution. It alleges in a statement that the Bank of Ghana “illegally” printed 80 billion cedis ($6.9 billion) for President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government between 2021 and 2022.
Inflation, which stood at 40.1% in August after hitting a record 54.1% in December, has left the nation’s 31 million inhabitants struggling to cope with high food and energy costs. Rising prices pushed 850,000 people into poverty last year, the only opposition party represented in the West African country’s parliament said.
The central bank increased its benchmark interest rate to a record 30% in July to try contain inflation, adding to consumer pain. It left the rate unchanged at its meeting last week on expectations that price-growth will ease.
Addison flouted financial management and Bank of Ghana laws by giving in excess of 5% of previous year’s revenue as loans to the government, Samuel George, an NDC lawmaker, said. “It is untenable for him to remain in office,” he said.
The central bank has denied the allegations, saying it acted in good faith for the broader interest of Ghana, according to a statement published on social media platform X. The regulator only lent the government money during the pandemic in 2020 and then again in 2022, it said.
Ghana’s dollar bonds due in 2032 fell to 43.61 cents on the dollar at 2:06 p.m. in Accra, the biggest drop since Aug. 15. The cedi weakened 0.1% to 11.5894 per dollar, heading for the weakest level in more than two months.
The Bank of Ghana loaned the government 10 billion cedis to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic three years ago. At the end of last year, the regulator held 64.5 billion cedis of state bonds, which was subsequently restructured as part of the country’s domestic debt exchange to make its loans sustainable under an International Monetary Fund program.
The central bank was the only investor that suffered a principal loss under the debt restructuring, resulting in a 60.8 billion-cedi shortfall last year.
Ghana, which defaulted on a eurobond payment earlier this year, is revamping almost all of its debt, valued at about $50 billion at the end of June. It sought IMF help in July 2022 after its dollar bonds plunged and spending cuts failed to convince investors it will be able to repay debt.
“The central bank’s financing of the reckless government and subsequent losses is the main cause of the high inflation which made Ghanaians poorer,” Fuseni Abatey, a 47-year-old dispatch rider who joined the protest, said. “This is why I support this demonstration.”
