A financial economist at the University of Ghana Business School is urging Ghanaians to reframe how they read the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) reported GH¢15.63 billion loss for 2025, arguing that the figures are not evidence of mismanagement but the predictable cost of bringing inflation under control.
Dr Jabir Mohammed says the controversy surrounding the central bank’s financial results reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of what a central bank is designed to do. Unlike a commercial bank, the BoG’s core mandate is price stability, not profit maximisation, and the two objectives often pull in opposite directions.
The 2025 audited financial statements, released on April 30, 2026, show that the central bank’s Open Market Operations (OMO) costs nearly doubled to GH¢16.73 billion from GH¢8.60 billion in 2024. OMO involves issuing short-term instruments and paying interest to financial institutions to absorb excess liquidity from the banking system, a mechanism the BoG deployed aggressively to drive inflation down. The cost of those operations is what shows up most visibly in the loss figure.
“Don’t expect a central bank to keep inflation down and still be a profit-making entity,” Dr Mohammed said, making clear that anyone demanding both outcomes simultaneously, particularly during a recovery period, is setting an unrealistic standard.
His position is backed by the results on the ground. Ghana’s headline inflation fell sharply from elevated levels into single digits during 2025 and has continued easing into 2026. The cedi appreciated by 41 percent over the same period, and gross international reserves rose from US$9.1 billion at the end of 2024 to US$13.8 billion by the close of 2025. Auditors KPMG, who signed off on the accounts, confirmed the central bank remains operationally sound, noting that lower inflation should reduce the need for costly interventions in the period ahead.
Dr Mohammed acknowledges that rebuilding the BoG’s balance sheet will take time and will likely require structured government support, linked to a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Finance for a phased recapitalisation programme running from 2026 to 2032. But he frames the trade-off plainly: Ghanaians can have low inflation or they can have a profitable central bank, but expecting both at once during a stabilisation cycle is not how monetary policy works in practice.
The losses have ignited sharp political debate. Opposition lawmakers including Gideon Boako and former Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam have argued the true losses are significantly higher than the reported figure when other comprehensive income charges are included, while the NDC Majority has defended the results as a necessary cost of restoring macroeconomic stability.
