Banking clean-up: Why spend GH¢25 billion to solve a GH¢4 billion problem? – Mahama asks

Former president John Dramani Mahama has questioned the rationale behind government's expenditure on the closure of banks and financial institutions in the wake of the clean-up exercise by the Bank of Ghana.

According to him, the crisis in the financial sector at the time required an amount of GH¢4 billion to address it whereas government spent a whooping GH¢25 billion to undertake the clean-up exercise which it believes saved depositors funds.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the 7th Ghana CEOs Summit held in Accra on May 22, John Mahama debunked the assertion by government and said the decision by the governing New Patriotic Party to conduct the clean-up exercise in the financial sector was rather politically motivated.

“I cannot to this day understand why a GH¢4 billion problem was made to cost the taxpayers GH¢25 billion. These banks were asked to capitalize to GH¢400 million, and if there were even 10 of them, that would be GH¢4 billion and yet with the closure of banks, we incurred a public debt of GH¢25 billion guaranteeing depositors’ accounts,” John Mahama said.

“Indeed, for some of these banks, there was no problem. It was purely politics or personal vendetta. One bank was shutdown solely because its principal shareholder was being investigated for corruption in a case involving a state enterprise,” he added.

John Dramani Mahama, who was recently elected as the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress for the 2024 elections, reiterated his promise to restore the licenses of some financial institutions, if given the nod.

He explained that the move will ensure that the banking industry is revived to boost investor confidence while offering opportunities to persons who lost their jobs in the wake of the clean-up exercise.



MA/FNOQ