President of the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF), Nana Osei Bonsu has criticized the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for its role in the current crisis in Ghana’s banking sector.
Speaking on Citi TV’s Point of View on Wednesday evening, Mr. Osei Bonsu said, the central bank is to blame for the current banking struggles.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Tt38t1j3jLmULWzPDTxc9uH9Y4aQ5JHv”]“What is their [BoG] responsibility besides licensing these institutions? They are supposed to do due diligence. Do they have bank examiners [who] go into these banks to review the banks’ operations and portfolio?” he quizzed.
He was commenting on the consolidation of five locals banks by the Bank of Ghana.
The five, which have been consolidated into Consolidated Bank Ghana limited are Beige Bank, Construction Bank, Royal Bank, uniBank and Sovereign Bank.
Nana Bonsu said the struggles of the banks could have been averted if the regulator was diligent with its supervision.
“If we had adequate [and] competent people within the Bank of Ghana who could do the analysis of banks’ potential licensing requirements and also review periodically their operations, this thing could not have occurred”, he intimated.
Nana Bonsu, who is also a banker wondered why the central bank will turn around and blame the banks for failing to comply with its rules.
“They [BoG] turn around and blame the banks”, he said.
BoG ‘merges’ uniBank, Beige, and three other struggling banks
According to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison, some of the banks obtained their licenses through false means by presenting documents that painted a picture as though they could meet the new capital requirement.
“The government has recapitalized the consolidated Bank Ghana Limited to take on including all liabilities of these five banks. The government has also issued a bond of GHc5.76 billion to cover the gap between the liability and assets assumed by the Consolidated Bank. The Consolidated Bank Gh. Ltd is expected to play a strategic role in the transformational agenda of the government,” he said.
Beige, Sovereign & Construction Banks obtained licenses falsely – BoG
Three of the five banks consolidated obtained their banking licenses by false pretenses.
The banks in question are Sovereign Bank, The Beige Bank, and Construction Bank.
“In the case of Sovereign Bank Limited, as part of Bank of Ghana’s investigations into the failure of Capital Bank Limited (currently in receivership), it emerged that Sovereign Bank’s licence was obtained by false pretenses through the use of suspicious and nonexistent capital,” the Bank of Ghana boss, Dr. Ernest Addison stated at a press conference on Wednesday August 1, 2018.
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By: Nii Larte Lartey/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
