Accra, Ghana//-From John Mahama to Nana Addo is like a Journey from Profit Making to Loss Making in the Management of Ghana’s Economy.
The streak of losses being recorded in most State-Owned Enterprises (SoEs) ever since the Nana Addo/Bawumia led government took over power from NDC says a lot about how our economy is being managed.
Ghana International Bank (GIB), a subsidiary of the Bank of Ghana is the latest SoE coming to confirm that, current managers of the Ghanaian economy have no clue about how to govern, protect the public purse and make life better for the ordinary Ghanaians who toiled to bring them to power.
It has thus now become obvious to the very doubtful voters that, the 2016 electoral rhetoric from NPP that Nana Addo and his men are competent was nothing more than complete ruse, and a cunning deception that was designed to trick Ghanaians for electoral purposes.
The case of GIB is a clear example of how square pegs sitting in Accra’s round holes are ruining the Ghanaian economy and making life unbearable for the ordinary man.
Dr Ernest Addison as the Governor of Bank of Ghana (BoG) also chairs the Board of Directors of GIB. First and foremost, under his watch as Governor of Bank of Ghana (BoG), monetary policy has been haplessly handled and Ghanaians are bearing the brunt of this monumental incompetence.
Secondly, the performance of GIB from 2017 provides even much clearer evidence:
Data from the audited accounts of GIB show that, the Bank slipped from the position of a profit making SoE in 2016 when NDC was in office, to a loss making SoE with the Nana Addo/Bawumia government.
The worrying aspect is the quantum of losses that are being recorded.
For instance, data shared by Bright Simons of Imani Africa and the profit after tax from 5-year records of comparative data in their published Statement of Financial Position reveal that, while in 2016, GIB made a profit of about $17m, over the years of mismanagement under Governor Addison, all the gains/profits have been whittled away into the negatives and the Bank is now in a nosedive making a colossal loss of $16.5million as at the year ending 31st December 2020.
Take note:
NDC 2016 profit $17m
NPP 2020 loss $16.5m
The evidence is clear that, the new managers inherited a profit-making entity which they decided to milk to death, tripling the staff cost by recruiting cronies who did not add any value except to draw huge salaries.
This and other imprudent management practices are what is creating some of the problems this country is currently facing for which we are all now paying dearly. Sadly, instead of admitting their weaknesses and shortcomings, they seek to pass the buck and blame others for this failure.
Unfortunately for them this time around the losses begun well before Covid-19 and the Ukraine war. So, it is improbable that, Government of Ghana and Dr Ernest Addison can blame the aforementioned factors for their incompetence.
Our crime is that, in the past, out of sheer cowardice and the fear of victimization, we refused to point out the errors of this government to them.
Now following what we have all come to know about how the economy of Ghana is being managed, claims that Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine are responsible for our economic mess are not tenable.
State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are part of the micro units of the macro economy of Ghana. If that’s anything to go by, then we dare say that Ghana has been in crisis ever since NPP took over the reins of government.
It is sad how we throw money away in reckless abandon for political expediency. For instance, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK regulator, is said to have fined GIB an amount of £5.8m for “allegedly failing its Anti-money laundering controls”.
The fact that current managers of this administration could so easily accept the charges and admit guilt without contesting the charges/allegations speak to the incompetence, if not criminal negligence of BoG and the government of Ghana under Nana Addo.
This matter could have so easily been fought off if a legal defence was put up. Reason being that, except to say there was risk as a result of the alleged ‘regulatory breaches’, there was no actual evidence of money laundering for which Ghana should be slapped with a fine of £5.8m.
But because the said audit period was between January 2012 and December 2016, under the erstwhile NDC administration, current managers of the economy thought it was a golden opportunity to admit guilt and blame it on NDC thereby making them look bad. Governor Addison and his people have failed in their fiduciary responsibility to the bank and the people of Ghana. This therefore sound to me more like criminal negligence of duty leading to willful financial loss.
Dr Ernest Addison must be told to move out of the realms of politics and focus on the professional requirements of his work because if Ghana was operating on a Profit and Loss basis, it would have been declared bankrupt and auctioned out for pittance.
By A.W. SULLEYMAN, Public Policy Analyst, Development Finance Major, Certified Public Private Partnership (PPP) Specialist, and Development Economist
