Osagyefo Oseadeeyo Agyemang Badu II, the Dormaahene, has pleaded with President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to halt construction on the new Bank of Ghana headquarters, which is expected to cost $250 million.
The Dormaahene said the plans to build a new headquarters are misplaced given the current economic situation in Ghana while speaking at his palace in Dormaa in the Bono Region on Thursday, August 17, 2023.
According to him, “We heard that the BoG is building a new headquarters at a cost of $250 million dollars. That is about a quarter of the money we are seeking from the IMF. We want the President to intervene. He should meet with them and rescind that decision and communicate the same to us.”
The bank’s managers have come under fire for the bank’s losses, which totaled GH60 billion cedis, and the new building is close to Accra’s Ridge Hospital.
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The Central Bank’s management previously provided justification for their $250 million investment in the construction of a new structure to serve as its new Accra headquarters.
The central bank stated in a statement on Wednesday, August 9, 2023, that a structural integrity assessment it had done had shown that its current headquarters building was no longer “fit for purpose” and could not withstand any significant earth tremors.
The Bank of Ghana claims that, in contrast to its current BoG Head Office building, constructed by the Nkrumah administration in the early 1960s, the new head office can withstand significant earth tremors.
In order to make clear how it finances the government during economic downturns, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has highlighted the necessity of such interventions in light of external and internal shocks.
The Central Bank’s specific financial assistance to the government in these instances highlights the exceptional circumstances that called for these actions.
