- BoG’s 2025 Loss Was Worth It Because It Delivered Stability — Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson, Chief Executive Officer of Dalex Finance, has defended the Bank of Ghana’s 2025 financial loss, arguing that it must be assessed against the macroeconomic stability it helped deliver rather than treated as a simple accounting failure.
Speaking during the NorvanReports and Economic Governance Platform (EGP) X Space Titled, “The Price of Stability: Did BoG’s Loss Deliver Real Gains for Ghana’s Economy?”, Mr Jackson said the central bank’s latest loss should be understood in a completely different context from the losses recorded during the 2022–2023 economic crisis.
According to him, Ghana’s earlier crisis period was marked by one of the sharpest inflation spikes in the country’s recent history, driven by fiscal slippages, foreign exchange pressures, government arrears, energy sector liabilities and the monetisation of fiscal deficits.
“I just wanted to offer a slightly different perspective and go back to the period 2022 to 2023, where Ghana suffered one of the sharpest inflation spikes in its history,” Mr Jackson said.
He noted that during that period, the Bank of Ghana recorded historic losses linked to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme, foreign exchange valuation losses and the financing of government deficits.
But he argued that the macroeconomic backdrop in 2025 was fundamentally different. “Fast forward to 2025, again, you can record losses, but the macro context is completely different,” he said.
Mr Jackson explained that in 2023, the government financing gap placed intense pressure on the central bank, forcing it to support fiscal operations in a way that expanded reserve money, weakened foreign exchange reserves and intensified inflationary pressure.
“In 2023, the government financing gap caused the Bank of Ghana, if I were to put it unkindly, to print money. Reserve money expanded sharply, foreign exchange reserves fell, and the whole context resulted in inflation,” he said.
He contrasted that experience with 2025, when the Bank of Ghana’s loss occurred in an environment of disinflation and macroeconomic recovery. “This time it was different,” Mr Jackson said.
According to him, while the central bank recorded a loss in 2025, the outcome was a sharp improvement in Ghana’s inflation profile, with inflation falling from the early twenties into single digits and reaching one of its lowest levels in recent years.
“During this period where we made a loss, compared to other periods, we’ve actually driven inflation down from the early twenties all the way down to single digits, and right now currently at the lowest we’ve seen in a long, long while,” he said.
His intervention adds to the growing debate over how the public should interpret central bank losses, especially during periods of economic repair.
For critics, the Bank of Ghana’s loss raises concerns about institutional balance sheet strength, operational costs and policy choices. But Mr Jackson’s argument is that the 2025 loss must be viewed as the cost of restoring stability after a period of severe macroeconomic stress.
The distinction, he suggested, is critical. A central bank loss associated with reserve depletion, fiscal dominance and inflationary money creation cannot be judged the same way as a loss incurred while withdrawing liquidity, stabilising prices and rebuilding confidence.
Asked directly whether the Bank of Ghana’s loss was worth it, Mr Jackson was unequivocal. “It is very much worth it,” he said.
His comments reinforce the view that the Bank of Ghana’s 2025 financial outcome must be analysed through a policy lens rather than a commercial profit-and-loss lens. Central banks are not ordinary businesses. Their primary mandate is not to maximise profit, but to safeguard price stability, financial stability and confidence in the currency.
The broader policy question is therefore whether the costs reflected in the central bank’s accounts delivered measurable economic gains. For Mr Jackson, the answer is clear: inflation has fallen, stability has improved and the macroeconomic environment is markedly different from the crisis period. The challenge now is whether those gains can be sustained and transmitted fully into the real economy through lower lending rates, stronger private-sector credit, business expansion and job creation.
For now, Mr Jackson’s message is blunt: the Bank of Ghana’s 2025 loss was painful, but it bought the country something more valuable — stability.
