The founder of UP Tradition Institute, Dr Razak Kojo Opoku, has challenged claims that the Bank of Ghana recorded losses of GHS34.9 billion or GHS44 billion in 2025, describing such interpretations as misleading and inconsistent with accounting principles.

According to Dr Opoku, some commentators initially claimed the central bank had incurred losses of GHS44 billion, but later revised the figure to GHS34.9 billion or GHS34.95 billion after official financial data became available.

He argued that the revised figures were wrongly calculated by adding the Bank of Ghana’s operating loss of GHS15.63 billion to an Other Comprehensive Income (OCI) loss of GHS19.32 billion.

Speaking on the matter, Dr Opoku described the approach as “poor accounting” and a misapplication of financial calculations.

He explained that Section 7 of the Bank of Ghana Act, 2002 (Act 612), which deals with revaluation accounts, makes it inappropriate to combine the OCI loss with the operating loss in determining the bank’s actual financial loss.

According to him, the auditing firm that assessed the central bank’s accounts clearly explained that the OCI loss reflected the impact of the cedi’s appreciation on the cedi-equivalent value of the Bank’s foreign currency reserve assets.

Dr Opoku also dismissed arguments that the central bank’s losses could be calculated by subtracting the 2024 negative equity figure of GHS61.32 billion from the 2025 negative equity figure of GHS96.28 billion.

He argued that negative equity should not be interpreted as operational losses or insolvency, insisting that central banks often incur such costs as part of broader economic stabilisation measures.

“Negative equity of a central bank occurs whenever liabilities exceed assets, but it is not insolvency,” he stated.

He explained that the increase in the Bank of Ghana’s negative equity reflected deliberate policy interventions aimed at reducing inflation and stabilising the cedi.

According to Dr Opoku, the central bank incurred what he described as “economic stabilisation costs” to reduce inflation from 23.8 per cent in December 2024 to 5.4 per cent in December 2025, while also helping strengthen the cedi against major foreign currencies.

He maintained that the GHS96.28 billion negative equity represented accounting or book losses linked to valuation effects and the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme rather than poor management decisions.

Dr Opoku further argued that the Bank of Ghana’s interventions should be assessed based on their impact on inflation and exchange rate stability rather than solely on the negative equity figures.

“In conclusion, the actual loss incurred by the Bank of Ghana in 2025 was GHS5.63 billion as reported by the auditing firm, not GHS44 billion or GHS34.9 billion as being claimed by some people,” he stated.