Stephen Antwi -Asimeng and Gillian Slater
DAILY GUIDE has learnt that prior to the takeover of UT Bank last week by GCB Bank, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) had injected a lot of money into its operations just to make it solvent, but unfortunately the move failed to achieve any meaningful results.
Owing to the situation, the new management of the Central Bank realised that it was imprudent to continue to inject money into UT Bank.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was said to have also played a key role by mounting pressure on the Central Bank not to inject large amounts of money into the ‘dead’ bank.
It took the action based on the capital adequacy ratio of UT Bank, which hovered between five and 10 percent.
It would be recalled that following the adoption of the bank by the GCB Bank Limited, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Finance Officer (CFO) were asked by GCB Bank Limited to step aside for a forensic audit to be carried into the bank’s operations.
Rather, they went in to sustain UT Bank after the past Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/Founder Prince Kofi Amoabeng and four others had exited the bank, which was in a deplorable state.
DAILY GUIDE also learnt that UT Bank was virtually on its knees when the two managers were engaged.
They were brought in to specifically help to restructure and repackage it.
The new leaders, who were asked to step aside, succeeded in restructuring UT Bank by separating the ‘bad’ bank from the ‘good’ bank as different entities.
They mostly met with the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to make the bank attractive for an investor.
According to DAILY GUIDE’s sources, some investors showed interest in the bank and were expected to reach an agreement in September, this year when suddenly the Central Bank unilaterally took a decision without informing the new UT managers and shareholders.
The new owners of UT Bank have indicated that they would over the next six months conduct a skills audit of the staff of UT.
By Samuel Boadi
samuel10gh@yahoo.com