The Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul-Malik Kweku Baako Jnr, has said the Bank of Ghana’s handling of uniBank, which belonged to former Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor and GN Bank, which belonged to former presidential candidate Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, was wrong.
Similarly, he expressed misgivings about the central bank’s collapse of Heritage Bank Ghana Limited, which belonged to Mr Seidu Agongo.
“I felt for the three banks: Nduom’s bank [GN Bank], Heritage Bank that belongs to that young man, Seidu Agongo (because of his extension into radio we met a couple of times in 2014 and 2015) and Dr Duffuor’s bank [uniBank]”, he said on Accra-based Peace FM’s Kokrokoo morning show.
In reference to Mr Agongo, Kweku Baako said: “He is a young man and I appreciated him and I want to see a young man like him who does great things”, adding: “It was painful his bank went down”.
“The same with uniBank”, he said.
“I will tell [you] honestly; Dr Duffuor is a personal friend but the action taken against the banks was not right”, he added.
The three banks were among some nine locally-owned banks that were collapsed by the central bank for being insolvent.
The Danquah Institute, a pro-government think tank, was recently accused of being the brain behind the collapsed of some of the banks.
However, the Executive Director of DI, Mr Richard Ahiagbah, told journalists at a press conference on Monday, 20 July 2020 that the allegation, which it said was thrown out on social media by elements of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), are mere fabrications.
He said the nature of the audiovisual publication “is consistent with the opposition NDC’s propaganda narrative”.
The video claimed DI mooted the idea to President Nana Akufo-Addo, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and Bank of Ghana Governor Dr Ernest Addison, to clip the business wings of former Finance Minister Dr Duffuor and former presidential aspirant Dr Nduom, since they were more likely to side with the biggest opposition party than the government.
The plan, according to the video, was, thus, to destroy the banks owned by the two businessmen.
However, Mr Ahiagbah said: “The video makes wild and objectionable claims that appear to implicate the institute in a ploy to wilfully collapse some banks”, adding: “We wish to state unequivocally that the claims contained in the video are false, a complete fabrication and distortion of the fact”.
“Though we do not know the source or the people behind the video, its content is consistent with the opposition NDC’s propaganda narrative and, so, we respond to it as such,” he said.
Just recently, the Presiding Bishop of Perez Chapel International, Bishop Charles Agyinasare, asked whether the two locally-owned banks, in addition to UT Bank, could not have been salvaged by the central bank during its financial sector cleanup exercise.
In his virtual sermon on Sunday, 19 July 2020, which was themed: ‘Getting rid of envy’, Bishop Agyinasare said the same “demons” that possessed politicians in the days of old to collapse local businesses were still lingering and wreaking havoc
