Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama has nominated Johnson Asiamah as the next governor of the country's central bank, pending approval from the Council of State, the presidency announced.
Asiamah has been with the Bank of Ghana for over 23 years and previously served as the second deputy governor from 2016 to 2017.
"Over the years, he has demonstrated his commitment to implementing sound monetary and exchange rate policies, fostering a stable financial system, and promoting accelerated economic growth in Ghana," the president’s office said in a statement.
The current governor, Ernest Addison, is set to retire from the bank at the end of March and will be on leave starting February 3.
Mahama was sworn into office in early January, pledging to address public discontent by reviving the economy and creating much-needed jobs. He has inherited an economy emerging from its worst crisis in a generation, with turbulence in key sectors like cocoa and gold.
His administration has yet to officially release its economic policy plans, which the central bank cited on Monday as one of the reasons for maintaining its benchmark interest rate unchanged.
The Bank of Ghana is targeting an inflation rate of 8%, with an allowable margin of ±2 percentage points, but the annual inflation rate remains significantly higher, standing at over 23% in December.
The bank stated that its latest monetary forecasts indicate that it will take longer for inflation to return to the target range of 6% to 10%.
