Banking crisis: 1,700 job losses unfair – Minority

A decision by the management of Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited (CBG) to lay off some 1,700 staff is unfair, Mr Richard Acheampong, Bia East MP of the Minority Caucus, has said.

The Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Employment, Social Welfare and State Enterprises, said when the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison was announcing the merger of the five banks to form CBG, he assured them that they were not going to lose their jobs immediately, hence astonishing that CBG, almost a month after the merger, is already sacking 1,700 workers.

Over 1,700 CBG staff, will, by the end of September 2018, lose their jobs.

Out of the number, 700 are mobile bankers of now-defunct Beige Bank, while 1,000 are former employees of The Royal Bank, The Construction Bank, uniBank and Soveirign Bank.

The Bank of Ghana recently fused uniBank together with Sovereign Bank, The Royal Bank, The Beige Bank and The Construction Bank to form CBG.

The fusion of the five banks follows the takeover of two other local banks: UT Bank and Capital Bank, by GCB Bank in August 2017 with the blessing of the regulator after it emerged that they were in dire straits.

In total, seven local banks have gone under, as the Bank of Ghana’s 31 December 2018 deadline for all universal banks to recapitalise from the GHS120 million to GHS400 million draws closer.

Speaking on Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5FM hosted by Chief Jerry Forson on Tuesday, 28 August, Mr Acheampong said: “This is an unfair treatment to the workers by the management and the Bank of Ghana because the workers were given the assurance that they would not lose their jobs.”

He added: “The government should have a second look at this and apply itself to the labour laws as far as the redundancy packages are concerned to avoid litigation”.

“The unemployment is just increasing under this government and we don’t want these people to be armed robbers and prostitutes, and, so, their redundancy packages should be adequate.”