Our current head office built by Nkrumah no longer fit for purpose – BoG justifies decision to build new office

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has stressed that putting up a new head office is a priority now more than ever.

The Central Bank was bashed by the Minority in Parliament on Tuesday when the leader of the group, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson addressed a press conference.

According to the Minority, it is shocking that the Bank of Ghana is going ahead to build a new head office at North Ridge worth $250 million after incurring GHS60 billion losses in 2022.

In a press release to reply to the Minority, BoG has indicated that building a new head office is crucial at this point in time since the old head office built by the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is no longer fit for purpose and will not stand any major earth tremors.

“A structural integrity assessment conducted by the BoG revealed that the current BoG Head Office building, built by the Nkrumah Government in the early 1960s, is no longer fit for purpose and could not stand any major earth tremors. The outcome of the structural integrity work was that the main building does not satisfy the full complement of excess strength required for a building to be considered safe for usage.

“This means that in the case of a worst-case gravity and wind loading scenario, for example, unusually strong wind, the building may be significantly affected. The building also does not have the required strength to withstand the expected imposed significant earthquake loads that would be expected to occur in the Accra area,” parts of the release from the Bank of Ghana explained.

The release further noted that based on the above and looking at the strategic objective of positioning Ghana as the financial hub of the sub-region with prospects of a potential Headquarters for a future regional Central Bank, it believes a new Head Office building is very important.

Management of the Central Bank believes that with a new office building, the operational efficiency of the Bank will also be boosted.

“The Board and Management of the Bank considered a new Head Office building as the most important priority project to support the operational efficiency of the Bank, and also position the Bank of Ghana in a very good position to be the host of the regional Central Bank as we currently host the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) of the Sub-region,” the BoG release added.