In Accra, the country’s capital, hundreds of protesters marched to the streets this week to demand the resignation of the Bank of Ghana‘s governor and his two top lieutenants due to the loss of around 60 billion Ghanaian cedis ($5.2 billion; £4.3 billion) in the fiscal year 2022.
The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party was in charge of the protest, which went by the hashtag #OccupyBoG. The demonstrators held up banners that read, “Stop the looting, we are suffering,” and chanted while wearing red shirts, scarves, and berets.
The opposition asserts that the bank illegally manufactured money in order to lend to the government, which caused the currency to depreciate and cause debilitating inflation.
It has also criticized the bank for spending $250 million on a new office facility and more than $762,000 on domestic and international travel, an increase of 87% over the previous year. The opposition asserts that an internal audit contains these numbers.
Dr. Ernest Addison, governor of the central bank, has been charged by the NDC with carelessness and poor administration. Although the bank has previously been charged with poor management, a loss of this size is unheard of.
