Ken Ofori-Atta
FINANCE MINISTER Ken Ofori-Atta and Keli Gadzekpo, a board member of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), have through their lawyers denied claims that they had tried to acquire the now defunct Capital Bank in 2016.
Founder of Capital Bank, William Ato Essien, had stated in an interview with Paul Adom-Otchere on Good Evening Ghana last week that Mr. Ofori-Atta and Mr. Gadzekpo — both founders of Databank Ghana Limited—notified him about their plans to acquire Capital Bank in 2016.
But, in a statement, lawyers of the Finance Minister and the BoG Board Member denied the claim, describing it as “malicious” and “plainly false.”
The lawyers from Acquah-Sampson & Associates, in a statement, placed on record that neither Mr. Gadzekpo nor Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta communicated to Mr. Ato Essien an intention to acquire Capital Bank in 2016.
In any event, it said, “It may be worth stressing that an expression of interest, prior to examining the books of a bank, cannot be stretched to mean or even imply an endorsement or confirmation that Capital Bank at that material time had a clean bill of health.”
“Our clients reject and condemn the defamatory remarks and suggestions purporting to link our clients in a negative way with the banking sector clean-up process that was decided, implemented, led and managed by the BoG,” the statement noted.
It explained that “the role of the Ministry of Finance in the entire exercise was/is, primarily, focused on how to: (a) provide financial assistance within the country’s limited fiscal space to protect the funds of depositors; and (b) build stronger, healthier and internationally competitive Ghanaian-owned banks.”
“It must also be underlined that the Finance Minister, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, was/is not responsible for the events and/or decisions that led to the unfortunate collapse of any bank in Ghana. His responsibility as Finance Minister was/is to manage the national economy and more particularly the impact of such a major crisis – which commenced prior to the appointment of Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta as Finance Minister,” the statement noted.
“Mr. William Ato-Essien’s sensationalist attack on Messrs. Keli Gadzekpo and Ken Ofori-Atta is false, unnecessary and diversionary,” it added.
BY Melvin Tarlue