'The failed banks were on unsustainable artificial life support’ - Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has given reasons for the financial sector clean-up.

Nine banks collapsed during the financial sector clean-up that was carried out by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) with support from the Finance Ministry.

The banks include UT Bank, Capital Bank, UniBank, The Royal Bank, The Beige Bank, Sovereign Bank, The Construction Bank, Premium Bank, and Heritage Bank.

Speaking at the end-of-year cocktail event by the Bank of Ghana on Thursday, December 14, President Akufo-Addo revealed that the Bank of Ghana has distinguished itself to the admiration of all well-meaning persons and it has discharged its duties accordingly.

He added that as of the time of the financial sector clean-up, the country was in a desperate situation and that urgent, radical measures had to be taken to prevent the collapse of both the financial and banking sectors.

“Probably the most difficult issue my government met on coming into office in 2017 was the state of the banking and financial sectors. Many of our banks and financial institutions were in distress and have been kept on unsustainable artificial life support by the central bank. The supervisory departments at the central bank were unfortunately not performing their duties. We were in a desperate situation, and urgent radical measures had to be taken to prevent the collapse of both the financial and banking sectors, the consequences were too dire to come to us."

“The Bank of Ghana, under the new leadership intervened and restored sanity in the sanity and in the process saved the banks and the funds of 4.6 million depositors. The government found some 21 billion Cedis to fund the cleaning-up exercise which has enabled a more robust financial and banking services sector to emerge better to finance the rapid development of our growth,” Akufo Addo stated.

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