President Nana Akufo-Addo has assured the public that individuals found to have been involved in criminal conduct in the financial sector which led to the collapse of some banks and other financial institutions, will be prosecuted.

“I am expectant that the criminal conduct, if any, of those responsible for the banking crisis, which is undergoing detailed scrutiny, will be brought to justice very soon, if prima facie evidence of criminality is found, which, according to my information, is likely,” Mr Akufo-Addo said in a speech at the 2019 edition of the Annual Ghana Bar Association conference in the Western Region on Monday, 9 September 2019.

Since the Bank of Ghana (BoG) started its cleanup exercise of the banking sector in August 2017, nine local banks went under. 

While some of them were accused of using suspicious means and capital to set themselves up, others were also found to have been mismanaged by their shareholders.

The affected banks include Heritage Bank, Premium Bank, former Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffour’s uniBank, The Beige Bank, Sovereign Bank, The Construction Bank, The Royal Bank, Mr Prince Kofi Amoabeng’s UT Bank, and Capital Bank, which was chaired by Pastor Mensa Otabil.

While UT Bank and Capital Bank were swallowed by the state-owned GCB Bank with the blessing of the Dr Ernest Addison-led central bank, the seven others were subsumed by an all-new state-owned bank, Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited (CBG), which was created by the Bank of Ghana during the cleanup.

After cleaning up the banking sector, the regulator turned its focus on the microfinance and microcredit sector. The licences of 386 of them were revoked.

Not too long ago, the licences of 23 other microfinance institutions and finance houses were also revoked.

By: David Apinga