The collapse of UT Bank in 2017 has resulted in severe business challenges for other companies under the UT group, the group CEO Prince Kofi Amoabeng has revealed.
According to him, the UT brand has lost its past glory as the collapse of the UT Bank has “defamed” the UT brand.
[contextly_sidebar id=”3ML09D3ZBKgrH24VzWKZiSKmYFkO0UAc”]Kofi Amoabeng said in a statement that the situation among other things has resulted in difficulties in servicing payments due its investors.
“The actions so far taken by the central bank have adversely affected the operations of the remaining group of companies of UT. The UT brand which was previously a superbrand a few years ago has been totally defamed. The situation has, for instance, led to difficulties in the servicing of payments due investors,” he noted in his statement.
He expressed regret that the collapse of the bank had left many of the bank’s staff with nothing to show for their years of dedication to the company.
More importantly to me today though, is the inability of several workers who once prided themselves as UT staff and now have little or nothing to show for their years of dedication and service; the negative impact on the other UT companies in the eyes of investors who believed in us and our vision to see a Ghanaian owned company become a successful global brand, he said.
The UT Holdings group has businesses including UT Properties Ltd, UT Financial Services Ltd. (Nigeria), UT Private Security Ltd., UT Logistics Ltd., and UT Collections Ltd., and Gateway Wealth Management Ltd.
UT Bank, as well as Capital Bank, were collapsed and handed over to state-owned GBC Bank in August 2017 because they had become highly insolvent despite receiving liquidity support from the Bank of Ghana totaling over GH¢1.4 billion.
Among the challenges of UT Bank, according to a BoG commissioned report, the Bank had given loans to many of its related parties without due processes and given several other bad loans to external companies.
The report also cited poor governance structure; thus fewer than expected number of directors and a majority of directors who were not independent as expected.
The CEO of the bank, Prince Kofi Amoabeng was also accused of failing to disclose a GH¢5 million loan payment money he had received from one of the bank’s client to the board.
GHS5 million undisclosed fund was personal money
But Kofi Amoabeng denied the claim his statement said the money he received was not the payment for a loan but proceeds of the sale of his personal house at Roman Ridge in Accra to one of the bank’s clients.
“Kofi Jobs Gyebi was a client of UT Bank who secured a loan facility and subsequently paid off the loan with its accrued interest in full.
Mr. Gyebi, after paying off in full his commitment to the Bank, expressed interest in purchasing my personal residence at Roman Ridge in Accra, which I had put up for sale.
Due to UT Bank’s challenges at the time, I instructed that payment of the said house be made to my personal bank account at UT Bank to help shore up the company’s liquidity. I wonder then, how, my decision not to disclose payment of monies into my personal account for the purchase of my personal residence constitutes a misdeed as suggested by several news reports,” Kofi Amoabeng explained, he said.
While expressing disappointment that the bank whose vision was to support Ghanaian businesses and become a global Ghanaian business had to collapse after 20 years of operation.
“Our brand was guided by a vision of assisting Ghanaian businesses and individuals to achieve their aims, based on sound values, principles, and discipline. We had always envisioned growing this company into a steadfast, international, Ghanaian-owned company. However, in our quest to support Ghanaian businesses and individuals, the company had challenges, and the central bank intervened.
He, however, indicated that he will continue to “co-operate with all state agencies probing the development for finality to be brought to this matter.”
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
