According to him, the central bank’s pandering to the whims and caprices of the government leading to the high inflation the country is currently faced with is akin to robbing the ordinary Ghanaian of their wealth.
The governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison has come under fire for presiding over the central bank’s loss of GH¢60.8 billion in 2022 due to the depreciation of the cedi and the impairment of the government’s securities holdings to the tune of GH¢48.45 billion.
According to the BoG’s 2022 annual report, it lost money also because of impairment loans granted to government and financial institutions amounting to GH¢6.12 billion.
Speaking on JoyNew’s Newsfile Saturday, John Jinapor stressed that the central bank could have avoided such huge losses had it exercised restraint and monetary discipline when dealing with the government.
He said the failure of the governor to put an end to government borrowing is responsible for the high inflation recorded.
“The Bank of Ghana’s main job is to put the exact amount of paper money that meets that value. If it puts in more than it meets that value it leads to inflation because apart from the medium of exchange, otherwise called a store of value, if I decide that I don’t want to keep the maize, I want to keep 10 cedis, my anticipation is that in one month’s time, when I get to the market with my 10 cedis I should be able to get that bag of maize.
“If the Bank of Ghana puts more than necessary what effectively it does is that it reduces my purchasing power. What the Bank of Ghana did, it doesn’t affect the Bank of Ghana directly, it affects the ordinary Ghanaian. In that the bank of Ghana is putting so much money in the economy and it is leading to hyperinflation, that is why inflation hit around 50%.
“So what the Bank of Ghana technically did and to put it in simple terms without engaging in the financial terms is that it took your money. That’s all. Look, no matter how you look at it, no matter how you explain it, the Bank of Ghana effectively aided government by taking your money not in the form of taxes but in the form of putting so much money in the economy such that it leads to what we call hyperinflation,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament and other civil society organisations are demanding the immediate resignation of the Dr. Ernest Addison and his deputies.
