John Mahama
THE GOVERNMENT’s method of handling the banking sector crisis is unprofessional says former President John Dramani Mahama.
According to him, the government’s poor modus of dealing with the current challenges confronting the banking sector has resulted in panic among indigenous financial institutions.
He said “Akufo Addo’s administration’s predatory approach towards indigenous investors in the banking sector has created a panic run on the remaining surviving Ghanaian financial institutions.”
Speaking at the 9th National Delegates Congress organised by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Accra to elect new party executives, the former president was of the view that the inept handling of the banking crisis has led to the almost complete collapse of the local financial sector.
It would be recalled that last year, banks such as UT Bank and Capital Bank collapsed.
Similarly, Unibank, Beige Capital, Sovereign Bank, Royal Bank and Construction Bank were also merged this year to form the now Consolidated Bank of Ghana, following their inability to address the insolvency issue as required by the BoG.
Mr Mahama further argued that the incident had gravely affected small and medium scale enterprises leading to significant job losses.
The banking crisis, interestingly, started under the Mahama administration but the issue was swept under the carpet by officials appointed by the former president at the apex bank, Bank of Ghana.
His brother, Ibrahim Mahama was also a factor in the collapse of the banks particularly the UT Bank where he was indebted to the bank to the tune of over GH¢300million. Ibrahim was also a factor in the collapse of the Merchant Bank.
The Receivers of UT Bank have therefore dragged him to court to recover the unpaid huge sums of loan advanced to him for his cement factory and other related businesses.
By Vincent Kubi & Issah Mohammed