Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison has urged parliament to allow the laws to work as far as the revocation of the licences of some banks is concerned.

Two of the nine banks that went under as a result of the central banks financial sector cleanup exercise have petitioned parliament to intervene.

uniBank and UT Bank, founded by Dr Kwabena Duffuor and Prince Kofi Amoabeng, respectively, sought the intervention of the legislature to probe into the circumstances that led to the revocation of their licenses.

Speaking at the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industries’ business forum held on Wednesday, 23 June 2021 in Accra, however, Dr Addison said: “Running to parliament to seek redress for the revocation of an institution’s licence is not one of the processes laid down under the law for those who feel aggrieved by a licence revocation by the Bank of Ghana”.

“There are already a number of actions filed in court and at arbitration by the same persons who run to Parliament for cover-up”.

“And the Bank of Ghana’s simple response to Parliament is to respectfully allow the pending legal processes to run their course.”

“Indeed, sometime in September 2018, the 7th Parliament undertook a formal inquiry into the financial sector clean-up, the key factors that led to it and the manner in which it was carried out”. 

“Among other things, we were to appear before it and to answer specific questions aimed at assisting the committee to understand the events surrounding the clean-up exercise”.

“The Bank of Ghana cooperated fully with the committee and provided all the necessary information to assist its members to reach their own conclusions,” he noted.

“We understand parliament’s continued interest in the clean-up exercise, especially given the public funds that were used to settle depositors’ claims in order to promote the stability of our financial system.

“While the legal processes in court and at arbitration run their course, we would respectfully ask that parliament and, indeed, all Ghanaians, to take a serious view of the GH¢19 billion government had to provide out of taxpayers’ money to settle claims of depositors following the mismanagement and siphoning of several billions of Ghana cedis from the defunct institutions by their shareholders.”