Economist, Courage Boti has stated that the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) call to revise the Bank of Ghana Act is a step in the right direction.
He notes that the move is critical to stabilizing the country’s fiscal management.
In an interview with Citi Business News, Courage Boti also explained that, “I don’t think this is a wrong call. I think it is part of the whole processes. Our sickness is basically the same and we keep doing the same stuff, get into trouble then go for corrections”.
As part of the prior actions required by the IMF before Ghana got the IMF economic bailout, the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to eliminate monetary financing during the programme.
This has led to the call by the IMF programme will among other things revise the Bank of Ghana Act in a bid to strengthen the central bank’s independence and mitigate fiscal dominance.
The amendments to the BoG Act will among other thing have mechanisms to monitor and enforce compliance, and a clear definition of emergency situations under which the limit can be temporarily lifted.
“There is the need to now use the regulation to control some of the things we do until some sense of stability is achieved in our fiscal and monetary management. So, that is the intent of this kind of revision,” the economist added.