Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom
We would now like to refer to GN Bank and BlackShield, both of which have Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom as a shareholder. We cannot understand why such a bank, which was obviously thriving before 2017, could be closed so abruptly. GN Bank invested heavily in technology to reach 300 locations across Ghana. It had all kinds of infrastructure paid for with valuable shareholder money, including that of a foreign-owned company. The bank gave good jobs to more than 6,000 men and women across the country and supported the business aspirations of many people. It made banking safe for more than a million customers. We know that the liquidity crisis the bank faced was engineered and allowed to spread by government agencies that withheld funds owed to contractors.
We hereby make a special appeal to H.E. the President of the Republic to use his authority and arrange for the issuance of the license of GN Bank. Many of the communities are still without a licensed financial institution. Many valuable assets are simply rotting away. The economy has not grown to absorb the thousands who have suddenly become unemployed.
There are thousands of soldiers, police officers, judges, teachers, civil servants, businessmen, and people from all walks of life whose savings are at stake due to the revocation of fund managers' licenses by the SEC. We again appeal to the President of the Republic to direct SEC to ensure that all clients of fund managers, including Gold Coast/BlackShield, are paid their investments without conditions. Thankfully, in 2021, Parliament approved funds to be used to pay out clients of ALL fund managers whose licenses have been revoked. Government has perpetual life, but human life is limited. Some have already lost their lives. The President must intervene with his full executive authority to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to make payments to these affected customers who are suffering needlessly because of the policy of selective payments to preferred contractors.
Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to call on the President to review the methodology used in the financial sector to set minimum capital requirements for financial institutions in Ghana. The fixed minimum capital approach adopted by the Ministry of Finance is archaic and discriminates against smaller businesses. In the modern world, a flexible, risk-based capital methodology is used that allows regulators to ensure that financial firms have the right capital to fund the business they transact and the deposits they collect. We suspect that the administration's single minimum capital approach is a deliberate tool to make new capital prohibitively expensive for certain domestic firms so that parts of the government have a basis for revoking their licenses.
The President and his lieutenants must always put the interests of Ghanaians first in all their deliberations and decisions, including the application of regulatory minimum capital requirements for regulated financial institutions. A fixed minimum capital requirement for all financial institutions, regardless of their size and risk, is a bad policy that the President must review.
We are confident that the President will intervene in this matter to end the pain and suffering of customers, protect local businesses and save much-needed jobs for the good of the Republic of Ghana.
May God Bless Our Homeland.
Sign:
Nana Ofori Owusu
National Chairman
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Isaac Dzidzoamenu