uniBank closure: Kwabena Duffuor cites illegal irregularities, sues Bank of Ghana

Major shareholder of defunct uniBank, Dr Kwabena Duffuor has headed to court to challenge the legal basis upon which the banking license of the newly formed consolidated bank was issued by the Bank of Ghana.

In a suit filed against the Bank of Ghana, the former governor of same said the license granted the new bank was not in accordance with Act 930 and should be declared null and void.

uniBank was one of four indigenous banks collapsed and joined to become the Consolidated Bank Limited.

He claims the revocation of the license of Unibank constitutes unlawful expropriation of the property of shareholders in breach of articles 18 and 20 of the constitution.

In a writ, Dr Duffuor noted that “as at the end of July 2017.uniBank was a leading indigenous bank with the highest paid up capital of GHS 370.13 million and a Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 10.7% as acknowledged by the defendant. uniBank also had a total paid-up capital, including income surplus of GHS 422.10 million.

“As at end of July 2017, uniBank had 400,000 accounts and 54 branches spread throughout the country and employed about 2000 people, inclusive of outsourced staff.”

The writ also added that “ the plaintiffs say that the defendant acted unreasonably and in bad faith in the conduct of repeated auditing and downgrading of the financial position of uniBank, and thereby went outside the powers it had under the Banks and Specialized Deposit Taking Institutions Act,2016 (Act 930).

Read the full statement below.