For Sale: Ghana Commercial Bank!

The Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo Maafo, on Friday made a firm commitment of the government?s readiness to sell the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB).

The minister?s assurance was in the wake of denials by some government was ready to divest the country?s only commercial bank, which has more than 100 branches throughout the country but not under any unfavourable conditions.

So far, he said, three organisations had put in their bids which met all the criteria set by the government. According to the Minister, the government had made it a policy that whoever buys GCB should be able to keep and maintain all the branches of the bank.

On the expected loan from the International Financial Consortium (IFC), Osafo Maafo said he was taking time to examine critically all documents that came to him in connection with the loan before he appends his signature on them. He said the anxiety and the kind of debate that the loan had generated, demanded a critical examination of the documents.

The minister said he would be in a better position to talk about the loan when everything about it had been finalised.

On the payment of common fund to the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, the minister called on Parliament to enact a law to ensure that each government ensures that it pays the common fund fully before leaving office.

He said the present situation in which monies not budgeted for the payment of the common fund were used for that purpose was not good. The delay in the payment of the fund to some districts, he said, was sometimes the making of the assemblies themselves.

He said it was the duty of every assembly to submit its project proposal to the Ministry of Finance through the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry before the money is released.

He said the government did not want a situation where monies are kept in the accounts of the assemblies without being utilised.

On the price of petroleum products, Osafo Maafo said it was important that Ghanaians pay realistic prices for fuel. According to him, the situation where the government continued to subsidize petroleum products was not sustainable.

The Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo Maafo, on Friday made a firm commitment of the government?s readiness to sell the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB).

The minister?s assurance was in the wake of denials by some government was ready to divest the country?s only commercial bank, which has more than 100 branches throughout the country but not under any unfavourable conditions.

So far, he said, three organisations had put in their bids which met all the criteria set by the government. According to the Minister, the government had made it a policy that whoever buys GCB should be able to keep and maintain all the branches of the bank.

On the expected loan from the International Financial Consortium (IFC), Osafo Maafo said he was taking time to examine critically all documents that came to him in connection with the loan before he appends his signature on them. He said the anxiety and the kind of debate that the loan had generated, demanded a critical examination of the documents.

The minister said he would be in a better position to talk about the loan when everything about it had been finalised.

On the payment of common fund to the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, the minister called on Parliament to enact a law to ensure that each government ensures that it pays the common fund fully before leaving office.

He said the present situation in which monies not budgeted for the payment of the common fund were used for that purpose was not good. The delay in the payment of the fund to some districts, he said, was sometimes the making of the assemblies themselves.

He said it was the duty of every assembly to submit its project proposal to the Ministry of Finance through the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry before the money is released.

He said the government did not want a situation where monies are kept in the accounts of the assemblies without being utilised.

On the price of petroleum products, Osafo Maafo said it was important that Ghanaians pay realistic prices for fuel. According to him, the situation where the government continued to subsidize petroleum products was not sustainable.