Government will not bow to threats

Accra, July 8, GNA - Government on Tuesday said it would not bow to threats or emotional outbursts from a section of the public trying to change the course of divesting its 46.8 shareholdings in the Ghana Commercial Bank.

Rather government would be guided by prudent technical and financial analysis to safeguard the interest of the nation.

Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, said this when he took his turn at the meet the press series in Accra.

Government's decision to sell its 46.8 per cent shares had generated a lot of heated public debate with people calling on the government to maintain its shares because of the strategic nature of the Bank to the national economy.

But government said it had not the means to inject the 15 million dollars needed by the Bank to improve its technology and enhance service delivery to a level required by customers.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said such comments without recourse to economic analysis might not alter government's aim to follow policies that would help to deepen the country's financial sector, which, he said, was for now least developed.

He said a well-developed financial sector would help government to deliver more quickly its economic development agenda.

It is in this vein that the government appointed a Special Committee to look into the best model for divesting shares in the Bank.

"For now no clear decision has been made and I'll not pre-empt the outcome of the Committee's work," the Minister said.

Mr Osafo-Maafo gave the assurance that no Ghanaian strategic investor would be excluded from the divestiture process once they met the technical and financial considerations.

He asked social commentators to study the Banks annual statements of accounts and make their own judgement about the operations of the Bank.