SSNIT Disowns President’s Brother

Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has denied claims by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that it was forced to take up the purported debt of President Mahama’s brother owed to Merchant Bank Ghana Limited.

Ibrahim Mahama, who owns Engineers and Planners, is said to owe Merchant Bank, in which SSNIT holds 98 percent stake, about GH¢57.2 million.

The disclosure was made when South Africa’s largest bank, FirstRand announced the takeover of Merchant Bank Ghana in August.

Under the deal, FirstRand was to take up “a subscription of new shares worth 154 million and acquisition of shares worth 592.2 million rand.”

At the same time, the transaction was said to exclude some loans on Merchant bank’s balance sheet, which existing shareholders were to acquire and continue to collect outstanding balance.

Merchant Bank’s debts were not part of the deal involving First Rand and this appears to have raised eyebrows.

Yaw Buaben Asamoah, a Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), at a news conference last week, claimed the President’s brother was the largest debtor who owed GH¢57.2 million about 19.2 percent of the bank’s total debt of GH¢330 million.

But SSNIT, in a statement released yesterday, said records at Merchant Bank Ghana indicated that the bank’s debt had not been redeemed and could therefore not be accused of taking up the debt of the President’s brother.

SSNIT said “it is guided by corporate governance that will enable it sustain the pension scheme for future generations.”

“SSNIT will never relegate its collective responsibility of keeping the sustainability of the contributors’ pension fund to the defrayment of independent debts contracted through an independent investee company like Merchant Bank.”

It stated that “the provision of a superior mandatory basic first tier pension scheme to all its members when they fall due.”

It also assured the general public, workers and pensioners that it would do everything possible to protect their pension funds.

Ibrahim Mahama denied the NPP’s claim and issued a statement through his company’s Chief Finance Officer, Sulemana Ahmed Amidu last Wednesday, saying he (Mahama) was committed to paying off the loan.

Merchant Bank, which has two branches in the country presently, has not reacted publicly to the allegations.

Recently, concerned workers of the bank also took up the issue of the bank’s debt and petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate the circumstances.

Among other things, the bank’s directors were accused of allegedly going ahead to guarantee another $5 million loan at Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) for Engineers and Planners.