Ghana gov’t wants fixed 10-year non-renewable tenure of office for central bank governor

The Ghana government is recommending a fixed 10-year tenure of office for the Governor of the Bank of Ghana.

According to the government, the 10-year tenure should be “non-renewable”.

This is contained in a government White Paper released July 9, 2012 on recommendations made by the Constitution Review Commission (CRC), a body that was set up to review Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.

The CRC in its final report to President Atta Mills, recommended that the independence of the BoG should be expressed in the Constitution, which the government said it has accepted even though it “finds this recommendation inconsistent with the recommendation at paragraph 134 of the Report that the tenure of office of the Governor of the BoG should end with that of the President who appoints him.”

However, the government said it was of the view that “Governor of the BoG should have a fixed ten-year non-renewable tenure of office.”

After the issuance of the White Paper, the government said it is setting up a five-member Implementation Committee with the mandate to implement, in strict compliance with Chapter 25 of the Constitution on “Amendments to the Constitution”, the recommendations that have been accepted by the government.

The Implementation Committee is to start work immediately, but because this is an election year, it is most likely that actual processes leading to the amendments may have to be deferred till after the elections, the White Paper stated.

By Ekow Quandzie