Johnson Pandit Asiama

Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama is a Ghanaian economist and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana. President John Mahama appointed him after the 2024 election, and he took office on 3 February 2025. He had spent more than two decades at the central bank, including two years as Second Deputy Governor.

Background

Asiama was born on 5 May 1968 and comes from Kpalime Duga in the Volta Region. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.

Career at the Bank of Ghana

He joined the Bank of Ghana and worked his way up through its research, banking supervision and monetary policy departments, and sat on the Monetary Policy Committee. He was Second Deputy Governor from April 2016 to January 2018.

His years in senior management overlapped with the start of the banking sector crisis, when several banks received liquidity support before their licences were revoked. He was later caught up in the prosecutions that followed; the Attorney-General discontinued the case against him in January 2025, shortly before he returned to the bank as Governor.

Governor

Asiama took over with inflation at 23.8 percent in December 2024 and the policy rate at 28 percent. Inflation fell to 5.4 percent by December 2025, helped by tight policy, fiscal consolidation and a stronger cedi, and the bank cut rates in steps through the second half of 2025. At the first Monetary Policy Committee meeting of 2026, in January, it cut the rate by 250 basis points from 18 percent to 15.5 percent. Inflation reached 3.2 percent in March 2026, its lowest since 2021, and the rate came down to 14 percent. With inflation edging back up to 5 percent in August and the cedi under pressure, the committee held the rate at 14 percent for a third meeting in a row in September 2026.

His agenda has also included banking regulation, foreign exchange rules and discussions on licensing non-interest (Islamic) banking. Avance Media listed him on its inaugural Top 100 Ghanaians Powerlist in 2025.