Akufo-Addo’s government collapsing banks of opponents - Akamba

National Organizer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC), Joshua Hamidu Akamba, has slammed the Nana Addo led administration for allegedly collapsing banks of some people he see as opponents.

Mr Akamba is also alleging that the support by government to some indigenous banks to meet the capital requirement by the Central Bank is an an avenue to create, loot and share as well as an avenue to collapse businesses of others in order to make that of Nana Addo’s cronies, friends and family grow.

The Government has announced a special programme to rescue five indigenous commercial banks that failed to reach the BoG’s minimum capital requirement of GH¢400 million.

The Finance Ministry in a statement issued few days ago said a new entity called: the Ghana Amalgamated Trust (GAT) will support solvent and well-run indigenous banks, which were otherwise having difficulties meeting the new minimum capital requirement deadline, to meet their obligations.

The beneficiaries of the GAT programme are Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), National Investment Bank (NIB), OmniBank Ghana Limited/Bank Sahel Sahara Ghana (OmniBank/BSIC), Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) and Prudential Bank.

According to the statement, the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, concerned about the difficulties such well-run, solvent Ghanaian-owned banks were likely to face in raising capital on their own, set up a committee to explore various options available for these banks in order to retain and strengthen local interest in the banking sector.

“Based on the Committee’s recommendation, an Advisor was appointed to facilitate the setting up of an SPV: the Ghana Amalgamated Trust (GAT), with the objective of raising funds from the private sector, mainly Pension Funds, to support eligible indigenous banks that successfully completed the due diligence process,” the statement said.

“Qualifying banks for GAT investment have been determined on the basis of their solvency, local ownership, minimum pre-investment capitalization of GHS120 million and an independent valuation by PwC”.

“GAT has committed funds from pension funds and other investors, through a bond programme, with proceeds of up to GHS2.0 billion to be used for equity investment in the eligible indigenous banks, as determined by the investors. The bonds issued to the Pension Funds will be listed on the Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM) for liquidity purposes”, the statement added.

But Mr Akamba told host of Frontline Kwabena Agyapong that, the move has nothing to do with helping these banks to grow as speculated but rather a means to make businesses of opponents fail and that of the NPP succeed.

He wondered why government failed to support other banks just like it is supporting the ones selected.

He believes the move is politically motivated and has challenged government to tell Ghanaians if indeed these selected banks have the capabilities, the required assets, strength, liabilities among others to get the support.

In assessing the two years of President Akufo-Addo he said, this ” useless government has failed woefully in transforming the lives of Ghanaians.”

In his view, this government can only be scored 100 percent for the unprecedented corruption, the appointment of cronies, family and friends.

They have not done anything significant. They promised to deliver Ghanaians from their suffering but they have rather worsened the plight of citizens. But I want to assure Ghanaians we will come back in 2020 to deliver them from the incompetent NPP, he posited.