The Akosombo Applause and the Central Bank’s Silent Auction
By A Concerned Ghanaian · 6 May 2026 · Politics
The talk of the town starts at Akosombo, where we are all busy clapping for the “youngster engineers” who have managed to patch up the dam. It’s a sweet moment watching a whole country celebrate the repair of its own heartbeat. But in all the cheering, we somehow forget to ask the simple question: why was the heart failing in the first place. We treat these repairs like miracles instead of basic maintenance we ignored for years. We love the drama of a rescue more than the quiet discipline of prevention. After all, working sprinklers don’t make headlines, but a fire at a national dam surely does.
But Osagyefo, the real show is happening at the Central Bank. They’ve released their 2025 financial results, and it reads like economic comedy. A total loss of 34.95 billion cedis so huge it feels less like a mistake and more like a bold creative choice. The official explanation is that this is the “price of stability,” since inflation dropped from 23.8% to 5.4%. But in a twist only Ghana could produce, the cedi’s 40% rise against the dollar has technically bankrupted the bank. The stronger the cedi gets, the weaker the value of the dollar reserves becomes, pushing the bank’s negative equity to over 96 billion cedis. Even calculators would need a moment to process that.
Then comes the panic. When the losses finally sank in, there was a rush to sell off the bank’s assets an attempt to cover the smell of decay. It’s like a man selling the pillars of his house just to buy new paint, hoping no one notices the building is tilting.
But the real theatre begins after the numbers. Instead of sending the report to Parliament the normal way, we now have a more “energetic” method. The document is reportedly handed to party footsoldiers, who then march to Parliament not to debate, but to hold a press conference on the steps. Before the Honorable members can even adjust their glasses, the story has already been shaped, packaged, and broadcast.
It’s a strange ritual where a bankrupt bank is presented as a heroic sacrifice, and loud political cheerleading drowns out the quiet, uncomfortable questions in the accounts. We are a country where the central bank is emptied to save the cedi, and Parliament is bypassed to save the narrative. Truly, we remain experts at the “plan to fail,” even in the rare moments when we accidentally succeed.
So long,
Ato_KD