BoG-uniBank Saga Causes More Stir

The tug-of-war between the Central Bank and uniBank, which has landed in the court, is still causing much stir among social commentators.

Mr. Sammy Gemfi, a National Democratic Congress (NDC) activist, has said that, per a letter issued by Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG) to the Bank of Ghana (BoG), it is safe to say that the Government of Ghana owed uniBank a whopping GH₵868,973,599 as at May 31, 2018.

Gemfi, who claimed to be spokesperson for the shareholders of uniBank, argued that BoG was not fair to uniBank in liquidating the bank.

His claims, which were made during a topical debate on Adom FM, prompted reactions from other panelists, including the Dean of Studies and Research at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), Dr. Eric Oduro Osae.

He asked: “If indeed government owes UniBank and if that amount owed by the government is paid, would they have an improved capital adequacy ratio that would allow the bank to continue operating as a liquid bank? Have the shareholders in UniBank indicated clearly that they were ready to pump more money into the bank?”

Dr. Osae opined that, the BOG should have done more due diligence regarding the KPMG report before liquidating Unibank.

“BoG should have verified the unverifiable and invalidated areas that KPMG could not do and add to the conclusion before they proceeded”, he said.

Concluding, the ILGS Dean said he believed there were some aspects of the whole brouhaha  that may not be known to the public now, adding that whatever it is, Dr Duffuor’s writ in the High Court would put everything to rest.

By: Hannah Bonful