Read BoG's report on banking sector clean-up before making further comment - Bawumia to Mahama

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has entreated former President John Mahama, to acquaint himself with the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) report on the banking sector clean-up to understand the circumstances that led to the merger and shutdown of some banks and financial institutions.

“I’ll ask the former president, if he hasn’t read, to go and read the Receiver’s Report or the BoG’s report and acquaint himself before making any further comments on matters he clearly doesn’t understand,” Dr Bawumia stated.

Dr Bawumia made these remarks in response to a question from a journalist concerning former President Mahama’s pledge to restore banking licences of some banks shut down following the banking sector clean-up in 2018 by the ruling NPP government.

This was during a media engagement organised by Dr Bawumia in Accra on Sunday, to create a platform to explain his vision for the nation, ahead of the December 7 polls.

Former President Mahama, who is the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has, among other things, pledged to restore the licences of some banks and financial institutions closed due to the banking sector clean-up.

Former President Mahama has consistently criticised the ruling NPP government for spending huge sums of taxpayers’ money to shut down some banks and financial institutions whilst it could have supported them to stand on their feet.

It was on that score that Dr Bawumia, a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, thus took advantage to explain the government’s actions regarding the banking sector clean-up, which he said, saved 4.6 million depositors’ money.

The Government says it spent over GHc23 billion to restore the country’s collapsing banking sector, which was fraught with several challenges, including breaches of financial regulations and embezzlement.

Vice President Bawumia explained that many of the banks had engaged in serious financial breaches such as extending loans beyond legal limits, misuse of capital, and investing in private properties.

“We saved the deposits of 4.6 million bank depositors who really were going to lose their deposits if those banks were not saved. I do not understand whether the former president has taken his time to understand the banking sector. Some atrocious things were done, and this is why these banks had to be saved.

“They were not collapsed; they were merged into other banks and no depositor lost 1 cedi. In fact, bad things happened, some of the banks broke all the rules and extended loans way above the single obligor limits,” Dr Bawumia stated.

“They were given, in some cases one billion by the Bank of Ghana to help them out of the mess, and they only got deeper into the situation. Other banks were given capital to save the situation, and they used that money to set up a Capital Bank, instead of rescuing the problem. They took the money from the Central Bank and set up another business which also collapsed. Some took money and invested in private properties.”

“So, it was against this background the governor came to report, and this was one of my nightmares in the last eight years. Most people did not understand how close we were to a collapse of the entire banking system. This is how we had to merge many of these banks into other banks and we saved 4. 6 million depositors,” Dr Bawumia recalled.

Dr Bawumia pointed out that the banking sector was on the verge of collapsing, hence the decision to merge some of them to prevent a complete crisis.

Dr Bawumia, a renowned Economist, and a Banker thus urged Mahama to acquaint himself with the full details of the crisis by reading the reports of the Receiver and the Bank of Ghana before making any further comments.

Meanwhile, the NPP Flagbearer reiterated his commitment to running a campaign focused on ideas and ensured that the NPP befitting a democratic group.

He urged those threatening “brimstone and fire” if they did not win the elections in December to reconsider their actions and thus reminded them that such actions were un-Ghanaian.

More than 200 journalists and media practitioners drawn from the 16 regions took part in the media engagement and asked questions that bothered on some promises outlined in the NPP 2024 Election Manifesto and actions undertaken by the ruling government since it assumed power in 2017 to date.