Geological Survey Authority justifies BoG’s decision to relocate head office

The Acting Director General of the Geological Survey Authority (GSSA), Issac Mwinbelle, has justified the Bank of Ghana’s decision to relocate its head office.

He said the current location, which is at the High Street near James Town in Accra, was prone to tremors and earthquakes. 

The decision of the central bank to build a new head office at a cost of $250 million has come under severe backlash from some sections of the public and the Minority in Parliament.

Mr Mwinbelle said it was it was, however, prudent for officials of the central bank to act swiftly to forestall any disaster.

Speaking in an interview on GTV, he said generally the coastal parts of Ghana, most specifically the eastern part is earthquake-prone.

“The coastal part of Ghana has a number of fault lines that pass through the area, but the prominent ones, which have for the period produced some substantial earth tremors and earthquakes, are the fault lines that are within the Krokrobite, Weija, and the Dansoman area.

“Most of the earthquakes that have occurred over the period are a result of the movement along the fault line. The latest one which was on the 10th of March this year, if you look at the epic center it was close to James Town, meaning that it is moving towards the current location of the Bank of Ghana,” he stated.

Commenting on how safe the new location is from possible earthquakes, Mr Mwinbelle said “If you look at the earthquakes that have occurred, they have always occurred off the coastline that is into the sea, and by approximation Ridge is much further away from the coastline, which is from offshore than the current location [of the Bank of Ghana] which is the High Street area.

“In terms of lateral placement, the Ridge location might be much safer when it comes to earth tremors. Because, the closer the structure is to the epic centre, the more devastation that it would cause as compared to when it is further away from the epic center. We may likely experience much lower devastation on the structure,” he added.

The central bank itself earlier explained in a statement on Wednesday, August 9 that a structural integrity assessment conducted revealed that the current BoG Head Office building, built by the Nkrumah Government in the early 1960s, was no longer fit for purpose and could not stand any major earth tremors.

“The outcome of the structural integrity work was that the main building does not satisfy the full complement of excess strength required for a building to be considered safe for usage. 

“This means that in the case of a worst-case gravity and wind loading scenario, for example, unusually strong wind, the building may be significantly affected,” the statement indicated.

The statement further noted that the building did not have the required strength to withstand the expected imposed significant earthquake loads that would be expected to occur in the Accra area.