A member of the Finance Committee of Parliament and MP for Sagnarigu, Attah Issah, says the Bank of Ghana\u2019s (BoG) negative equity position should not be interpreted as policy insolvency.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Joy FM\u2019s Newsnight on Monday, May 4, he said that the central bank remains capable of carrying out its core mandate despite the figures being discussed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you say ‘negative equity’, it doesn\u2019t mean the Bank is policy insolvent. The Bank is not in the business of making profit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He explained that the mandate of the Bank of Ghana is clearly defined and focused on stability rather than profit-making.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs in the mandate of the Bank of Ghana in section 9, the idea of the Bank of Ghana is to stabilise the price and then make sure that we manage our reserves and overall economic stability. That has been achieved based on the prevailing macroeconomic indicators,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
Mr Issah also sought to clarify how the GH\u00a296.3 billion negative equity figure was arrived at, noting that it is cumulative rather than a one-off loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they say the negative equity position of the Bank of Ghana, this 96.3 billion, it is not a one-off negative equity; it is a cumulative concept,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
He broke down the figures further.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of 2024, the total negative equity of the Bank was 61.3 billion. This year, if you add the total loss plus the other comprehensive income, it gives you 35 billion. When you add it to the 61 billion, that gives you the 96.3 billion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to him, the public must understand that the figure reflects an accumulation over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo let Ghanaians know that the 96.3 billion negative equity is a result of the 61.3 billion in 2024 plus the 35 billion in 2025,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Touching on the factors behind the losses, Mr Issah said the costs were largely driven by policy actions aimed at stabilising the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe OMO [Open Market Operations] cost was high because we wanted to tame inflation within the 8 to 10 per cent band, which we have achieved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He added that efforts to stabilise the currency and build reserves have also delivered results.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also wanted to make sure we stabilise the currency\u2026 and build our reserve from 9.1 billion to 13.35 billion, which we have achieved,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Mr Issah further outlined measures under a medium- to long-term programme aimed at easing pressure on the Bank\u2019s balance sheet.<\/p>\n
He pointed to the reserve accumulation programme passed in February 2026, which changes how gold-related transactions are accounted for.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cost incurred in accessing the reserve position through the gold board will no longer sit on the books of the Bank of Ghana. It will now sit on the books of the off-takers, and the Bank of Ghana gets reserves out of that,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
He also indicated that the high costs associated with tight monetary policy would reduce going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the 16.27 billion that was occasioned through the tight monetary policy\u2026 that will no longer feature because inflation has already come down below even the IMF projection and that of the Government of Ghana,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
On exchange rate-related losses, he said recent stability in the currency should limit future pressures.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we are now seeing some level of stability in the exchange rate, it means that there will not be so many exchange losses,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Drawing comparisons with global institutions, Mr Issah noted that negative equity is not unique to Ghana.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe European Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank in America all run negative equity, but they are still policy solvent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He expressed confidence that ongoing policy measures will prevent similar losses from recurring.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving forward, our expectation is that through the Ghana Revenue Acceleration and Accumulation Policy, we will no longer see these debts on the books of the Bank of Ghana,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A member of the Finance Committee of Parliament and MP for Sagnarigu, Attah Issah, says the Bank of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-411915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}