A former Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah, says the government can go ahead and set up the National Development Bank without parliamentary approval.
He says parliament in the year 2020 passed the Development Finance Institution Bill into law, which paves way for the setting up of the bank.
The Minority in Parliament had served notice it will oppose the formation of the bank if it does not come to parliament for approval.
Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, while addressing the media on the matter on Friday, September 3, 2021, argued that similar banks including the Agricultural Development Bank which was set up in 1965 were established by an act of parliament.
He explained that given the challenges the banking sector has faced in the past years, it will be necessary to have Parliament regulate the objective of the bank, among others, to ensure it does not engage in fiscal irresponsibility.
But Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah says the Minority’s position on the matter is flawed.
Speaking to Citi News, the former Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament said, “Parliament passed the Development Finance Institution Bill into law in 2020. It is that law that underpins the establishment of this bank. There won’t be any need to go back to Parliament” he argued.
The Ministry of Finance and the European Investment Bank on May 19, 2021, signed an agreement for the provision of a €170 million facility for the establishment of a new national bank.
DBG is an integral feature of the GH¢100 billion Ghana Cares ‘Obaatampa’ Project, which is seeing to the revitalization of the Ghanaian economy following the onset of COVID-19.