GCB To Be Privatised This year

Government is expected to step up efforts to establish a clean balanced sheet to enable it to privatize the Ghana Commercial Bank this year. Deputy Finance Minister, Dr Geysika Agambilla told the Business and Financial Times that the privatization procedure was slowed last year mainly because of Tema Oil Refinery’s (TOR) indebtedness to the bank.

TOR whose operations account form more than 40% of GCB’s loan portfolio owes more than ?2 trillion to the bank, inhibiting the bank’s liquidity. This has made the bank unattractive to potential strategic investors, forcing the government to slow down its divestiture plans.

Dr Agambilla denied accusations that government is only paying lip service to the divestiture of GCB, saying that a lot will be done this year, The paper says even though Ghana’s development partners such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are supporting the privatization of GCB as a policy, government is unwilling to take over the debt, which it guaranteed.