21.08.2023 LISTEN

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga has fired back at the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison.

The Governor on Monday, August 21, addressed a press conference in Accra and defended the decision by the Central Bank to put up a new head office building.

Among issues of safety raised, Governor Dr. Ernest Addison said the decision was taken after taking into consideration the need to ensure BoG has an office that meets all the requirements of a modern central bank of international standards similar to central bank head office buildings in Abuja and Dakar.

Speaking to Citi News this evening, Mahama Ayariga indicated that the argument by the BoG Governor does not carry weight.

According to him, the Central Bank is a mere regulator and does not need a huge edifice to operate.

“If he [Dr. Ernest Addison] really has the welfare of Ghanaians at heart he won’t be doing what he is doing. This is a regulator. This is not a commercial Bank. He doesn’t need all that space. He doesn’t need to put up that show because he has a mere regulator. He is not in the market competing with anybody,” the Bawku Central MP said.

Mahama Ayariga is of the view that the building of the new BoG office is to satisfy the luxurious taste of Governor Dr. Ernest Addison, insisting that it is baffling that this project is being undertaken at a time Ghanaians are suffering.

“It is in the context of the suffering of the ordinary Ghanaian for you to want to create such luxury for yourself when it is your responsibility to create a financial system that helps lift poor Ghanaians out of their poverty. And you choose to use the money to create luxury for yourself and create space that in my opinion if we really do analysis for personnel to space we will see that the Governor of the Bank of Ghana doesn’t need all that space that this building is going to create,” the Minority MP opined.

The Bawku Central MP believes that Ghanaians must not allow BoG Governor Dr. Ernest Addison to have his way.

He said the Minority will go ahead with its planned protest to the head office of BoG on September 5 to demand his resignation.