knowledge, which is waiting to be used. dear ladies and gentlemen, we live in an era of extraordinary dynamic changes. an era, where the already learned things outdate in no time, or become insufficient, while the crisis once again showed that the enigmas are far more numerous than the axiomatic truths. that is the reason that the investments in learning should be ongoing. as a central bank, we make constant efforts for knowledge improvement and elevation of the scientific and research capacity, not only within the bank, but wider, as well. therefore, in the previous years, we have organized numerous work - shops on many current topics, international conferences, and our employees lecture in several faculties in the country. also, four years ago, we introduced the annual reward for young researchers, which has proved to be a very successful example, followed by other institutions, as well. today ’ s opening of the joint public information centre is another contribution to the upgrade of the scientific and research profile of the central bank, which has been established and developed very hard all these years, in parallel with the operational portfolio of the basic functions of nbrm : determining and implementation of the monetary policy, the banking sector supervision, the financial stability support, ensuring smooth functioning of the payment system, and above all, realization of the ultimate objective of the nbrm ’ s monetary policy – the price stability. i believe that with the opening of this center, we open another channel for knowledge dissemination, which will be additional stimulus for the scientific and research activity. i believe that the center will also serve for further deepening of the nbrm and world bank cooperation, inter alia, also in the domain of organization of forums and debates on various current topics, as well as in the providing of foreign expertise, comparing the domestic with the international experience. dear friends, we are glad that this library will join the libraries the american journalist carl t. rowan calls “ knowledge food ”, saying also that “ the knowledge has liberated much more people than any war made in the entire history ”. we are pleased that also with this library, we enable a lot of people, either younger or elderly, to give one of the most beautiful gifts – the book, for which the writer garrison keillor says that “ it is the only gift you can constantly open, again and again ”. we are glad that we are opening another such possibility. i sincerely hope that the opening of this library will be welcomed by the scholars and

in particular, i would like to take this opportunity to clarify the misinformation about the circumstances surrounding the license revocation of the heritage bank. we were quite measured not to engage with the directors of the bank at the time, but sometimesit pays to clarify such actions to avoid misperceptions. during our assessments of this bank, we were able to unravel the financial engineering that went into the creation of false capital upon which the then heritage bank obtained its license. the heritage bank did not have the initial gh¢120 million capital required to obtain the universal banking license that was granted in 2016. in fact, the shareholders and directors of the heritage bank had roundtripped on a gh¢30 million payment made by cocobod to alive industries, a related company belonging to the principal shareholder — bank statements and the transaction documents are available for those who are interested to review. discriminatory reforms 6. there has also been some assertions that the bank of ghana has allowed banks that were not able to raise the minimum capital by the deadline to continue even after the deadline. i am sure you all followed the debate on the need to support indigenous banks which received a favourable response from the government through the creation of the ghana amalgamated trust. the banks that received support from gat met the qualifying criteria of being better governed and well managed. what is being perceived as discriminatory should rather be seen as the reward for better corporate governance and good management. that was the qualifying criteria. with the exception of the two state - owned banks ( adb and nib ), the private banks that received assistance were assessed and considered better managed than those that had their licenses revoked. section on bailout or resolution 7. now, the question on people ’ s minds is whether bank of ghana could have used the bail - out money to keep the banks in operation. ladies and gentlemen, such reasoning suggests a lack of understanding of the fundamental issues at play. let me say that the underlying factors that accounted for the resolution of the banks were deeper than liquidity issues. here, one can mention very serious infractions, weak governance structures and related - party transactions which rendered those defunct banks insolvent. i will not rehash these issues but rather look forward to the emergence of a stronger and well - capitalised banking sector, and as major stakeholders of the financial sector, we should all commit ourselves to never roll back the gains we have achieved in the industry. the