Opinions of Wednesday, 1 August 2012

Columnist: IMANI

View About Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur

, Governor of the Bankof Ghana now Vice-President



President Mahama has chosen Governor of the Bank of Ghana as as his
Vice-President.



This is what IMANI thought about him and still thinks of him. In 2010,
IMANI voted Mr. Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, Governor of the Bank of Ghana
as the most inspirational public sector leader with the following
citation;.



"The Governor impressed us with his conduct of the affairs of the Monetary
Policy Committee in particular, though there is evidence that other aspects
of the Bank’s work, such as banking inspection, have also improved. Despite
pressure from political forces to go beyond moral suasion in compelling the
banks to reduce interest rates, the Governor has been unwavering in going
where the evidence leads. Diplomatically, he has rebuked the government to
pay the contractors and stop dithering, since this has an effect on
non-performing loans in the system, and by extension lending rates. In the
words of Friedman, “inflation everywhere is a monetary phenomenon”. What
this quip means in this context is that the Governor’s conduct of monetary
policy has more than contributed to the era of stable inflation and the
stable national currency. His attitude to his duties has helped stem the
loss of investor confidence that marked the early months of 2009. He may be
dour, but only in a manner quite becoming of a guy who has his fingers on
the nation’s purse strings".



Mr. Kofi Bentil, IMANI's Vice President says "Amissah-Arthur is fantastic
choice, has the potential to reach out to the middle-class and the
intellectual community which the ruling NDC has in its recent life greatly
distanced itself. He has what it takes to mend the broken bridges within
the ruling party". We also remember vividly the Governor's invitation to
IMANI to discuss the viability of E-zwich payment system which was
introduced under the previous government, but for which we thought was not
going to make the impact promised. It was a very respectful and cordial
meeting with all his deputies.



We do hope that the current Communication and Legal Teams will see
significant changes in form and substance in accordance with what is
looking like the character of a befitting duo (President Mahama and
Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur.) in readiness for electoral
battle with Nana Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia of the leading opposition party.





IMANI’s List of 2010’s Most Inspirational Public Sector Leaders in Ghana:
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=199787
--
Respectfully yours,

Franklin Cudjoe

*Cudjoe is founding director of IMANI, a think tank ranked fifth most
influential in Africa (2009) and the only African think tank named in the
top 25 most innovative think tanks in the world in 2010 and top 20 most
innovative in 2011. Cudjoe is also General Editor of AfricanLiberty.org. He
has won two John Templeton Foundation awards, the first Antony & Dorian
Fisher Award and he has been cited in the United Kingdom's House of
Commons' debate on aid and development in Africa as well as by South
Africa's Supreme Court Judge on patents and intellectual property. Cudjoe
debated Tanzanian President Mkapa on globalization in 2007, and in 2010 he
led the World Bank's Africa region's taskforce within IMANI to investigate
what Africans needed from the World Bank. Cudjoe was consulted by the
United Kingdom's Prime Minister's office on how to make effective use of
British aid in Africa. He is an Earhart doctoral fellow at Buckingham
University in the United Kingdom, an alumnus of Harvard Kennedy School
Executive Education, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation's Think Tank
MBA programme and the Montreal Economic Institute's Think Tank Training
programme and an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education
for Global Leadership and Public Policy. Cudjoe was named Young Global
Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010, a fellow of the Africa
Leadership Network in 2012, and the only named Think Tank Leader in “Top 50
Africans” List of the respected Africa Report Magazine in 2012. Cudjoe is a
proud member of the Evian Group's Brains Trust located at the IMD in
Lausanne.*
Foreign Policy Magazine.Email :
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