President Akufo-Addo has for the first time spoken on the banking saga which has resulted to the collapse of several indigenous banks, refuting claims that there’s a government-led force to collapse local banks.
The president went on to debunk comments that some top ranking officials in the NPP are deliberately working to sink some indigenous banks for some foreign banks to dominate the economy.
Honorable Isaac Adongo of the opposition NDC Bolgatanga Central, for instance accused Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta of working together with the Bank of Ghana and the Security and Exchange Commission to collapse banks that are competing with Databank in the financial sector.
Defending the decision by the Bank of Ghana to consolidate five of the banks into Consolidated Bank of Ghana (CBG), and authorising the GCB to take over two other banks, Akufo-Addo said if such actions and other measures put in place by the central bank were not taken, other indigenous banks would also collapse.
UT Band and Capital Bank were taken over by the state-owned GCB Bank last year over liquidity challenges and breaches of banking regulations.
The president’s comments on the banking saga were made when he addressed the Ghanaian community in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali on Thursday.
“We cannot have a situation where the dominant banks in our country are all foreign banks. It is very dangerous for our future if we allow that to happen. But if our own indigenous banks are performing poorly, at the end of the day, we do not take care, one by one, they will all go under.
“We are trying to make sure that the banking sector of our country has strong indigenous banks which can compete successfully with these foreign-owned banks. It is not a process to eliminate indigenous banks. It will not make sense to do that at all…I am a politician, I want the votes, but I think that I’m required first of all to do what I consider right for our people than worry myself about the impact of it on my political support,” the President said.
