Consolidated Bank to shut down more than 50 branches; massive staff lay-off looms

Information reaching ghanaweb.com has it that more workers of the five recently collapsed banks, which have now been consolidated into a fully state-owned enterprise will be laid off.

Though ghanaweb.com can’t independently confirm the number to be sacked, information available suggests that the looming lay-off will be as a result of plans to close down some branches of the defunct banks.

This exercise is however different from the 700 Beige Bank employees who have already been dismissed.

According to sources, some branches of the 5 defunct banks, now Consolidated Bank Ghana are sited too close to each other and cannot operate concurrently at an avoidable cost.

“In certain areas we have uniBank, Beige Bank, Royal all operating. CBG cannot run all those branches situated at one area, so some will be closed down and more workers will be laid off. But It doesn’t mean all workers will be laid,” a source said.

Meanwhile our checks show that more than 50 of the 191 Consolidated Bank branches dotting the country are to be shut down which will culminate into the dismissal of workers from the affected branches.

Consolidated Bank Ghana, being fully state-owned, runs on government business model and probably has no business plan in place reengage the usage of the closed branches, as the new management is still trying to find its feet.

Already workers of the 5 defunct banks are on a 60-day probation to justify their employment status after which CBG is expected to dismiss non-performing and under qualified staff.

The Beige problem

A memo cited by ghanaweb.com indicates that Consolidated Bank Ghana limited is set to lay off 700 staff of the now defunct bank, Beige.

The exercise, which begun on Monday, August 27, 2018, will affect the entire Micro banking team of the bank including all Field Tellers, FSO internal and outsourced.

This has generated into growing anxiety amongst all workers of Beige Bank limited, as their fate remains unknown.

In other breathe, Investors of Beige Investment still unable to access their matured investment.

According to our source, previous management of the now defunct bank violated corporate governance by moving monies meant for investment from Beige Investment to Biege Bank and vice versa.

Background

Biege Bank limited was among the 5 consolidated banks, which were sited with various liquidity and corporate governance challenges.

In the specific case of Beige, it was accused by the Bank of Ghana of securing their banking license under false pretense amongst others.

“Beige Bank and Construction Bank were each granted provisional licenses in 2016 and launched in 2017. Subsequent investigations conducted by the Bank of Ghana, revealed that similar to the case of Sovereign Bank, both banks obtained their banking licences under false pretenses through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital, which has resulted in a situation where their reported capital is inaccessible to them for their operations.”