Ghanaian president names new central bank governor

President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana has named Ernest Addison, a senior monetary policy expert, as the governor of Central Bank of Ghana.

Addison was appointed after the sudden resignation of Nashiru Issahaku, who was appointed by former president John Mahama, who lost the election to Akufo-Addo in 2016.

Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, Issahaku said he resigned for “personal reasons” — long before the end of his stipulated tenure.

Issahaku became the shortest serving governor of Ghana’s central bank, since it was founded in 1957.

According to The Africa Report, Addison was, in the early 2000s, a leading architect of Ghana’s monetary policy, and worked as a lead economist at the African Development Bank.

The announcement comes as Akufo-Addo’s young government seeks to stabilize national finances and review with the International Monetary Fund the terms of a $918m financial aid deal aimed at reducing inflation, public debt and the fiscal deficit.

The fiscal problems and a decline in global prices for Ghana’s exports of gold and oil have led to a sharp slowdown in growth in a country that until 2014 had been one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

“In order not to have a vacuum at the top of such an important state institution, the president … has appointed Dr Ernest Kwamina Yedu Addison as governor,” the statement said.

The central bank cut the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points in January to 25.5% and by a further 200 basis points on Monday in what economists say is the start of an easing cycle as inflation falls.