Giving 7 failed banks back to owners: Adongo on his own – Fifi Kwetey

Mr. Fifi Kwetey, a Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of parliament, has said a comment by his fellow committee member and Bolgatanga Central MP, Isaac Adongo, that a future government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will return the seven collapsed local banks to their owners, does not represent the views of the Minority in Parliament, as a Caucus.

On August 28, Mr. Adongo told a forum in Accra that an NDC administration will not hesitate to return assets of the collapsed banks to their owners "unless they are found to have committed some tangible illegalities."

Seven banks have collapsed within August 2017 and August 2018.

They include UT Bank and Capital Bank, which collapsed on 14 August 2017 and were taken over by GCB Bank with the blessing of the Bank of Ghana.

On 1 August 2018, the central bank announced the fusion of five other struggling banks: uniBank, The Beige Bank, The Construction Bank, The Royal Bank and Sovereign Bank, into a totally new entity called Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited.

Speaking to the media after the first day of the Finance Committee’s hearing of the failed banks saga, of which Mr Adongo boycotted, Mr. Kwetey, told the media that his colleague’s lone walk-out “is his individual position. He does not represent the Minority.”

Mr. Kwetey then went on to add that: “The views he [Mr. Adongo] expressed earlier regarding returning assets to owners of the bank is his individual position as well.

“He represents none of us on the Finance committee and I can say by extension that he doesn’t represent the Minority as well.”