ISODEC joins debate on sale of BOG shares in ADB

Accra, Aug. 27, GNA - The Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), an organisation that promotes rights and accountability, has waded into the debate on sale of the Central Bank's shares in Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) calling for a second look at the issues at stake.

"There are compelling reasons for government and the Bank of Ghana to take a second look at the formulae for the off-loading of the Bank of Ghana controlling shares of 48 per cent in ADB," it said in a statement signed in Accra on Monday.

"ISODEC is convinced that the national interest will be greatly compromised if ADB, the fourth leading bank in Ghana, controlling 60 per cent of all lending to the agricultural sector and whose performance has remained strong in spite of its continued support to the rather high risk agricultural sector is sold to a so-called strategic investor without due consideration of proposed alternative arrangements that keep the bank in the hands of Ghanaians."

It described the debate as healthy and helpful for the entrenchment of a vibrant democratic culture saying it was always better and prudent to weigh a particular decision against available alternatives, discuss them openly and frankly with the people on whose behalf the decision was being made, before committing to it.

The public has been debating a proposal by Stanbic Bank of South Africa to buy the controlling BOG shares in ADB with the workers, Trades Union Congress, some political parties and civil society organisations leading the fight against the offer It referred to the arguments of Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, an economist and former Senior Minister, supporting the sale of the shares to Stanbic saying they indicated that the government believed "the Stanbic deal will do the trick".

ISODEC asked whether offloading the shares to a single strategic investor was the optimum way to inject new capital into ADB and whether the new investor would remain committed to the mandate and mission of the bank.

"We find this fixation with privatisation of everything good or bad, including strategic assets, a rather sad commentary on our appreciation of the exigencies of our development aspirations," it said. "In the view of ISODEC, offloading the BOG shares in ADB on the Ghana Stock Exchange best serves the national interest. It will certainly be an added boost to trading, while placing the bank firmly in the hands of Ghanaians, whose decisions at annual general meetings are more likely to be guided by a combination of the national interest and profitability."

ISODEC said it was of the view that the financial sector was a major and an important vestige of the national sovereignty that must not be handed over to "rent-seeking investors".

It asked why Stanbic could not expand its own operations in Ghana and inject the needed capital to support agriculture to compliment what ADB was doing and provide competition.