Dr. Ernest Addison, the governor of the Bank of Ghana, has emphasized the institution’s tenacity in bolstering the economy amid the 2022 crisis, saying that the BoG merits “applause” from Ghanaians rather than unjustified criticism.

Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Bankers’ Governor’s Day programme, Dr. Addison praised the central bank’s role in keeping the economy from collapsing under the strain of the crisis.

“It is important to remind ourselves, as players in the global economy, that the crisis that hit the Ghanaian economy in 2022 was like what pertained in many other frontier and emerging market economies, including Egypt, Argentina, Turkey, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, just to mention a few. These countries, except for Sri Lanka, had built policy buffers and the resilience of their key institutions provided the needed anchor to hold their economies until reform packages were introduced” Dr. Addison stated.

According to Dr. Addison, the bank was able to intervene on behalf of Ghana’s economy and sustain it until the end of the IMF program because of the country’s robust policy buffers that had been established over time.

“It is important to remind ourselves, as players in the global economy, that the crisis that hit the Ghanaian economy in 2022 was like what pertained in many other frontier and emerging market economies, including Egypt, Argentina, Turkey, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, just to mention a few. These countries, except for Sri Lanka, had built policy buffers and the resilience of their key institutions provided the needed anchor to hold their economies until reform packages were introduced.”

The economic crisis, Dr. Addison continued, “exposed a gap between theory and practice,” noting that the Bank of Ghana acted in a prudent manner throughout the various economic shocks it experienced.

“In the 2020 pandemic, the Central Bank supported the financing of the budget to protect lives and livelihoods. Again, in the 2022 economic and liquidity crisis, the Central Bank would not have acted differently but played its role as an automatic stabilizer to avoid pushing the economy to a tipping point which possibly could have spilled into social upheavals as was the case in Sri Lanka.

“It is very clear that only a Central Bank that has been prudently run, built buffers, and well positioned, can step in to support an economy from collapse. It is therefore most appropriate, I believe, to state that Ghanaians should rather applaud and commend the resilience of the Bank of Ghana.”