'NPP government wrote to US Embassy to deny me visa' - Kofi Amoabeng

Founder and former CEO of UT Bank, Captain Prince Kofi Amoabeng, has revealed that the former New Patriotic Party (NPP) government wrote to the US Embassy to prevent him from obtaining a visa after a court had returned his passport.

Speaking on Peswa Podcast and sighted by GhanaWeb, on September 29, 2026, Amoabeng said that after a series of investigations into his business following the closure of UT Bank, the court returned his passport, allowing him to travel to the United States for two weeks.

I resigned before UT Bank collapse, yet faced eight years in court - Amoabeng

However, he said the government subsequently interrupted the process.

“The government has the power, so they took the decision, even to the point that when the court gave me my passport, I could travel to the US for two weeks. The government sent a letter to the American embassy that I shouldn't be given a visa. I'm at peace with it. I don't have to go to America to survive,” he revealed.

Amoabeng, who was speaking about the difficulties he faced following the closure of UT Bank, said he believes he was politically targeted as far back as 2012 and 2013.

He said the situation later played into the hands of the government, which eventually took the decision to close the bank.

“Politically, I was targeted way back in 2012-2013, and then we played into their [former government] hands because then they came and realized that people were in support of them,” he noted.

Amoabeng also questioned the decision to close the bank instead of providing support and bringing in experts to help turn it around.

He argued that the government could have invested more money into the bank and placed experts on the board to help revive it.

“Then instead of thinking rationally and saying, ‘OK, we have liquid support of about, say, $800 million and we're going to use about $2.2 billion to close them down, who does that? At least if you give them $1 billion and put your own people on the board, experts on the board, [it could] turn it around.

“We wouldn't have used $2.2 billion in addition to the $800 million, which makes it about 3 billion thrown away in taxpayers' money, but I think we're quite myopic,” he stated.

Amoabeng said the bank’s closure did not affect only him but also the bank's workers, investors and the potential tax revenue that could have been generated.

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“They're thinking about maybe Kofi Amoabeng and how they have got him. But I'm only one person, a small fly. And what about the staff? What about people with their investment, the company? What about taxes that could have been gotten out of it? And a whole lot of things that they didn't look at, but they took that decision,” he added.

Amoabeng has been in court for eight years after being charged over several issues related to the collapse of the bank.

Watch his interview from 2:00:00 below:

MAG/VPO

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