Ernest Kwamina Yedu Addison (born 1963) is a Ghanaian economist, and the fifteenth and current Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG). He previously worked with the central bank as Director of Research from 2003 to 2011. Prior to his appointment as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, he had worked with the African Development.
Dr. Addison attended Mfantspim, a Methodist College in Cape Coast, in the Central Region. After Mfanstipim, he went to the University of Ghana, Legon, for his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from1982 to 1986. He proceeded to Cambridge University for his Master of Economics from 1987 to 1989 and obtained a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics degree from McGill University in 1993.
Dr. Addison joined the Bank of Ghana in 1995 as an economist and rose through the ranks to become the deputy Chief and Head of the Economic Analysis and Policy Division of the Research Department. During his tenure at the bank, he was a member of several committees including the Open Market Operations Committee, Money Market Auction Committee and the Editorial Committee and also secretary to the Financial Programme Implementation Committee and the Financial Policies Committee.
He chaired an Economic Community of West African States Task Force set up by the Authority of Heads of State of ECOWAS to perform feasibility studies culminating in the setting up of the West African Monetary Institute. Dr. Addison also served as the Chief Economist with the West African Monetary Institute from 2000-2003. Prior to leaving the Bank of Ghana, he worked under Mr. Kwesi Amissah Arthur, who was the Governor and later became the Vice President of Ghana. In 2012 he was a lead economist at the African Development Bank’s Southern African Resource Centre in Pretoria, South Africa.
In March 2017, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo forwarded Dr. Addison’s name to the Council of State for consideration and approval as the Governor of the Bank of Ghana. This was to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of the then Governor, Dr. Abdul Nashiru Issaku. He was subsequently approved and then appointed as the governor of the Bank of Ghana on April 1, 2017.
Due to his position as Governor, Dr. Addison automatically serves a member on many Government of Ghana agencies that deal with financial policy and management such as board member of the Ghana Cocoa Board.