Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the Minority Spokesperson on Finance has accused the Bank of Ghana (BoG) of printing money to fund the government’s budget without obtaining parliamentary approval.
He quotes an amount worth GHS22 billion that has been printed without prior knowledge of parliament. He added that during the period from January to June 2022, the Finance Minister had entreated the BoG to print these monies.
However, the Central Bank has denied the allegations levelled by Dr. Ato in a statement on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.
They explained that the GHS 22.04 billion is not a new currency to fund the government’s budget but rather, reflects net claims on the government, which include bank sales of stocks and bonds, the World Bank’s SDR allocation to the country, withdrawals from government balances at the central bank, and negative balances on the government’s account as a result of failed auctions.
A past Political Science lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Dr. Richard Amoako Baah has however reinforced Dr. Ato’s claims, adding that the Central Bank is still financing the government and this doesn’t happen only in Ghana. He said that it was common practice for the Central Bank to help the government cover internal debts in times of crisis. He further stated in an interview on Neat FM that the Central Bank does not receive monies and so he questioned the source of the monies used to support the government.
Dr. Baah also alleged that when things get tougher, more monies will be printed by the BoG to help the government out.