Asantehene Urges BoG to be Innovative in Reducing Interest Rates to Spur Private Investment
The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has called on the leadership of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to deploy innovative approaches to sharply bring down interest rates, warning that the high cost of credit continues to constrain domestic private sector investment.
He noted that elevated borrowing costs remain a serious impediment to the development of a robust and self-reliant economy, limiting the capacity of local businesses to invest, expand and generate jobs.
The monarch made these remarks on Wednesday during a rare courtesy visit to the Central Bank’s headquarters, where he commended recent progress in lowering inflation and stabilising the exchange rate.
Nonetheless, he argued that these early achievements would amount to little unless monetary policy is reoriented to significantly improve access to affordable credit for Ghanaian enterprises.
“The task I leave with your creative minds,” the Asantehene said in remarks addressed to the Governor, Dr. Johnson Asiamah, his deputies and members of the Monetary Policy Committee, “is to design a pathway that moves the economy away from this debilitating high interest rate regime to a level where interest rates actively support business expansion and wealth creation.”
His intervention came shortly after the Governor had warned against interpreting recent economic gains as permanent, stressing that currency stability must be sustained through continuous improvements in the productive capacity of the real economy.
The Asantehene presented his appeal as a critical national economic priority.
He dismissed suggestions that government spending or large inflows of foreign capital alone could resolve Ghana’s development challenges, particularly at a time of heightened global uncertainty.
“No level of government investment on its own can meet the scale of our needs,” he stated.
“This period demands a deliberate and large-scale drive to stimulate domestic private industrial investment, and that is not feasible under the current interest rate environment.”
While acknowledging that interest rates “are beginning to ease,” the traditional ruler maintained that experience shows the pace of reduction must be stepped up significantly.
Earlier, the Governor had reiterated that the recent calm and relative strength of the Ghanaian cedi, although encouraging, should not be assumed to be permanent.
He emphasised that durable exchange rate stability can only be secured through sustained economic discipline and higher productivity.
