By Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The New Patriotic Party (NPP), Minority Members of Parliament (MPs), says Dr Johnson Asiama’s appointment as Governor of the Central Bank, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) will expose the country to international ridicule.
According to the NPP Minority in Parliament, they have a problem with President John Mahama for appointing someone as Governor of the Bank of Ghana to supervise the financial sector in which his decisions were questioned through the charges for which he was on criminal trial.
Addressing some members of the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC) at a media briefing in Parliament House on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, the Minority Caucus, led by the MP for Tano North in the Ahafo region, Dr. Gideon Boako explained that the charges leveled against Dr. Asiama were very serious, and to drop those charges and appoint him as Governor, is problematic.
This single appointment tells a lot about the integrity of our financial industry. It also raises questions about how he will treat staff of the Bank who cooperated with the Attorney General’s (AG) Department in initiating the case against him. Dr. Boako enquired.
“His professional neutrality in dealing with the Banks and individuals who were charged with him; and whether he would not be favourable to reinstating the licenses of those Banks despite their alleged misconduct, are some of the concerns we have to address,” he added.
According to Dr. Boako both political and economic risk analysts will not be kind to Ghana given that some global financial institutions may refuse to do business with Ghana due to the uncertainty over these charges being re-instated by a future AG. This will likely increase the cost of Ghana’s international transactions.
“Dropping the charges does not mean he has been absolved of the crime. These charges can be brought back under a different government; and what will become of the decisions he will make as Governor,” NPP MP for Tano North reiterated.
We will be writing to the IMF to draw attention to this given that he will also as Governor of the Bank be a member of the IMF Board of Governors, thus exposing Ghana to international ridicule. He hinted.
Below is the full statement read by the Tano North lawmaker, Dr Gideon Boako at the press briefing in Parliament.
Minority Press Conference
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, if you will recall, a few days ago President John Mahama nominated Dr. Johnson Asiama to the high office of Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
By the constitutional requirement, his nomination requires consultation with the Council of State before he can be appointed. This means that Dr. Johnson Asiama cannot legally operate as the Governor until such consultation with the Council of State has taken place.
Contrary to this constitutional imperative, however, we have seen attempts by Dr. Asiama at the BoG to assume duties as if he is legally qualified to do so. Those of us from the minority side through our leader have had cause to officially write to the president pointing out the illegality of the actions by Dr. Asiama and hoping the right thing is done.
In the said letter, we drew the president’s attention to news reports from various media houses on Monday, February 3, 2025, to the effect that Dr. Johnson Asiama has gone to the Bank of Ghana, and for all intents and purposes, is behaving as the Governor and having meetings with various people.
We ask how it is possible for someone who has not yet been appointed but is only nominated and awaiting consultation with the Council of State to start work, and indeed when the Council of State has not even been constituted. Would he have the authority and mandate to take decisions and approve anything that comes to the bank? Would any decision taken by Dr. Asiama as he has taken office have legal authority? Wouldn’t this expose the bank to legal risks?
We wonder what the reaction would be if someone, were nominated to be a judge by the President, would go and sit in a court and purported to start administering justice without going through the process as set up by the Judicial Council.
Supposing the Council of State, when it is constituted, doesn’t approve the President’s nomination of Dr Asiama, what would be done about his presence and activities at the Bank of Ghana in the interim?
We humbly suggest that Dr Johnson Asiama ought to keep well away from the Bank of Ghana until his nomination is approved by the Council of State. He can ask for and get all the briefing he requires as he awaits approval.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have also noticed that in response to our letter to the president, the minister responsible for government communication, Felix Ofosu Kwakye has published appointment letters of previous government officials who were appointed/nominated while waiting for the constitution of the Council of State.
We wish to point out that we are not against the president’s act of nominating Dr. Asiama or any appointee pending the formation of the Council of State. What we are against, and we are legally right on, is the fact that the appointee carries on to act when the Council of State is not even constituted. It is a breach of the constitution of the republic, and it must not be tolerated.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, another disturbing issue about Dr. Johnson Asiama’s appointment is the fact that he was standing trial for various alleged offenses in his previous role as the Deputy Governor of the central bank.
Dr. Johnson Asiama (former 2nd Deputy Governor of the BOG) until his nomination was standing trial in the courts of Ghana for various criminal offenses, including fraudulent breach of trust, money laundering, conspiracy to commit crime, and violations of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Act. Regrettably, these charges were withdrawn by President Mahama a few days before the nomination of Dr. Asiama to the high office of the Governor of the central bank. Interesting times indeed!
If approved, Dr. Asiama will be heading operations and activities of the central bank, which is clothed with the responsibility to check and avert the very crimes he was standing trial for in the court. Permit me to share with you a statement the central bank shared on Dr. Asiama on August 23, 2019, in response to his interview with JOY FM.
“It is also instructive to note that Dr. Asiama was Deputy Governor at the time when the decision was taken to revoke the licences of UT Bank and Capital Bank, and had every opportunity to propose any other strategy for addressing the insolvency of the said banks if he felt there was a better and more effective strategy.
His approach before the new management team took over was simply to do nothing in the interest of depositors and the financial system, and to rather dole out large amounts of public funds to failed institutions whose shareholders dissipated these funds on private ventures at the expense of depositors, employees, taxpayers, and other claimants.
The claim that the approach to resolving the two banks resulted in the distress of the savings and loans and microfinance sectors is pathetic, to say the least. With full knowledge that these two banks were connected to other sectors of the financial system, Dr. Asiama and his colleagues were under a duty to take measures they were empowered to take under the law to avert the risks that these two institutions created for the rest of the system… Dr. Asiama also conveniently failed to state the truth that the majority of the MFIs and Savings and Loans/Finance Houses that failed had started showing signs of insolvency long ago, some as far back as 2012 and as was the order of the day, the “do-nothing” approach was at play.”
Given the above, it is our considered opinion that Dr. Johnson Asiama be made to go through the full hog of the adjudication of the cases he was standing trial for. We are at a loss as to why President Mahama could not wait for the completion of the adjudication process before appointing Dr. Asiama or allow the case to still run while he appoints him.
It is in the interest of both the state, government, and Dr. Asiama himself to establish whether or not he is guilty of the crimes he has been charged with. For a government that is birthed from a party which purports to be lovers of probity and accountability, we firmly believe that President Mahama should allow the charges against Dr. Asiama to stand even as he carries out his duties as the Governor when he is finally approved. The action by the president gives us cause to believe that Dr. Asiama is not clean.
This sully attempt to discontinue the proceedings of the criminal charges against Dr. Asiama is the more reason why we think, he (Dr. Asiama), a potential criminal convict should not be heading an important and sensitive office as the Governor of the central bank. It is even more crucial at a point where Ghana is under an IMF programme and requires absolute credibility in our dealings with the IMF.
We ask: how would the IMF and the international finance corporations see Ghana if one of our lead negotiators is perceived as a potential criminal convict charged with various acts of criminalities? Won’t it be proper if these international agencies or bodies have the assurance that we are allowing the court processes to run for proper adjudication and judgment? Would the decision to discontinue the court process not lay credence to any suspicion of cover-up for Dr. Asiama and hence, affect the image of the central bank and Ghana at large? What at all is the president afraid of, for which reason he has abruptly withdrawn the charges against Dr. Asiama?
These are questions we should all be interested in. Suffice to say that in any highly efficient market the appointment of Dr, Johnson Asiama, given the matters raised above, could have serious consequences for stocks on Ghana’s stock exchange. Ghana stands to suffer huge global reputational risks if Dr. Asiama is approved as the central bank governor without the acquittal or an attempt to secure the acquittal of the criminal charges from a court of competent jurisdiction.
We wish to draw the attention of the IMF to these disturbing developments from the government and call for strict scrutiny in their dealings with Dr. Johnson Asiama such that his actions or inactions do not lead us to any inconvenient destinations as far as our financial ecosystem is concerned.
We have a problem with appointing someone as Governor of the Bank of Ghana to supervise the financial sector in which his decisions were questioned through the charges for which he was on criminal trial. The charges were very serious; and to drop those charges and appoint him as Governor, is problematic. It tells a lot about the integrity of our financial industry.
It also raises questions about how he will treat staff of the Bank who cooperated with the Attorney General’s (AG) Department in initiating the case against him. His professional neutrality in dealing with the Banks and individuals who were charged with him; and whether he would not be favourable to reinstating the licenses of those Banks despite their alleged misconduct, are some of the concerns we have to address.
Political and economic risk analysts will not be kind to Ghana given that some global financial institutions may refuse to do business with Ghana due to the uncertainty over these charges being reinstated by a future AG. This will likely increase the cost of Ghana’s international transactions.
Dropping the charges does not mean he has been absolved of the crime. These charges can be brought back under a different government; and what will become of the decisions he will make as Governor.
We will be writing to the IMF to draw attention to this given that he will also as Governor of the Bank be a member of the IMF Board of Governors, exposing Ghana to international ridicule.
