Following Bright Simons, the Vice President of Policy Think Tank IMANI Africa, alleging that the newly constructed Bank of Ghana (BoG) headquarters actually cost around $600m, not $250m, pressure has been mounting on the Central Bank.
In a post on X, Bright Simons argued that the Bank of Ghana’s new headquarters is actually in the range of $600m if we are to be strict about the numbers.
According to Bright Simons, the costs of the BoG giant edifice are a total black box, adding that the whole project has been a masterpiece of opacity.
Some Ghanaians suggest the rumoured deal to sell the new BoG HQ to a private financier and lease it back is a financial trap and unthinkable, adding that private firms use leasebacks to free up cash; applying it to a central bank is highly toxic.
The netizen in his post explained, “The rumored deal to sell the new BoG HQ to a private financier and lease it back is a financial trap and unthinkable. While private firms use leasebacks to free up cash, applying it to a central bank is highly toxic. Here is the math.
The Crowding-Out Effect: The financier intends to fund the purchase using local bank loans. This means commercial banks will divert hundreds of millions of dollars away from real businesses to fund a zero-risk, state-backed real estate gig.
The Currency Mismatch: Any “juicy rate” for a prime West Ridge asset will be pegged to the US Dollar to protect the investor. The BoG earns in Cedis but will create a massive, long-term USD liability on its balance sheet, worsening FX stress.
Valuation Arbitrage: The project cost up to $600M (including $225M in prime land). Any private buyer will demand a massive discount to buy it. BoG takes a huge capital loss upfront, then pays premium rent to the buyer. It’s a double loss.
This sale-and-leaseback scheme is a textbook example of “katanomics” – using elite complicity to turn a public procurement failure into a guaranteed, private, risk-free profit.
IT MUST BE STOPPED AT ALL COST”.
Some more Ghanaians mounting pressure on the BoG wrote,” SELL (dirt cheap) AND LEASE BACK (at a hefty price)?? INCREDIBLE!! Is the Bank of Ghana cash-strapped?? Or are we dealing with a “super-shrewd investor” poised to make a killing with zero risks? This is “primitive accumulation” at its worst. GHANA IS A KLEPTOCRACY!”.
A netizen added, “This appears to be a high-quality core asset and should attract patient capital investors at FMV. At a minimum, this could provide immediate liquidity and significantly reduce the burden on the bank’s balance sheet. Debt financing for part of the acquisition would not be unusual”.
“Accra financial centre comes to mind. ADB sold the land to an SA-based firm and rented the building at a premium price instead of building its own headquarters on the said land. We must not allow this to happen”, one X user added.
One more Ghanaian added, “People should be in jail for this. The amount of public wastage due to corruption in an underdeveloped country like Ghana is staggering”.
A netizen added, “The Bank of Ghana HQ project stands like a grand mansion built in a fog—its foundations praised in daylight, but its cost and corridors only guessed at by those outside the gate”.
Meanwhile, Bright Simons, in his post, detailed, “In March 2025, the BoG told Parliament that it had tasked AESL to undertake a value-for-money audit into the HQ project. 15 months onwards, it simply REFUSES to publish the audit report.
Which is a serious problem because the costs of that giant edifice are a total black box, and the whole project has been a masterpiece of opacity. Let me jog some memories.
BoG’s Board took the decision to initiate the project in Dec 2019. The allocated budget was ~$100m. The procurement authority approved ~$81.9m. After the restricted tender was won by the contractor, the budget was suddenly jacked up to $121m. The BoG Board finally settled on $222.8m with the contractor.
But as I hinted earlier, the project is actually in the range of $600m if we are to be strict about the numbers”.
He further disclosed that, “In Feb 2025:
– $230m had been paid to the contractor.
– $31.8m was owed to the contractor.
– $8.6m was earmarked for a separate ICT contract.
– $15.8m was earmarked for integrated electronic security systems.
– $11.1m was earmarked for furniture & furnishings
– $48m was allocated for taxes & levies.
That is $345m, I lie?
Well, the original design that was costed for the clearly discredited tender at $100m included a bunch of things that the $345m hasn’t delivered. And remember that the earmarked allocations were merely on budget. If cost overruns are just 2x, how much really are we talking about?
Now, let’s add the piece everyone forgets: the prime land!
The BoG acquired the West Ridge/SIC land by compulsory acquisition through E.I. 304. The going rate in that prime area is easily $1500 per sq m. BoG doubled the acreage of Bank Square from 73,000 sqm to nearly 150,000 sq m. That is $225m of prime land!
In short, this is a $600 million (& counting) project that has katanomically been hoisted as a massive success because of zero policy accountability”.
See the post below:
1. A major news channel in Ghana says there is a ruckus in the Bank of Ghana (BoG) board. One faction wants the BoG's swanky/controversial new HQ sold to a lucky real estate company and leased back at a juicy rate.
— Bright Simons (@BBSimons) June 2, 2026
2. Apparently, a shrewd financier hopes to get bank financing… pic.twitter.com/s5vS0EBCAi
