Nii Amanor Dodoo can continue work as Receiver of uniBank – Appeals Court rules

An Appeals Court has given the green light to Nii Amanor Dodoo, the Receiver for uniBank Ghana Limited, to continue work as Receiver of the defunct financial institution until an appeal of the High court’s ruling has been determined.

The court ruled that there were exceptional circumstances to support the suspension of the High Court’s ruling that had sought to stop him from undertaking the receivership of the defunct bank.

In a unanimous decision, a three-member panel of the Appeals Court, led by Justice Mrs Margaret Welbourne, stayed the execution of the High Court ruling that held that the appointment of Nii Dodoo as receiver of the uniBank Ghana Limited was null and void.

With this development, it means that Nii Dodoo can continue to act as Receiver of uniBank, pending the determination of the appeal.

The case

In the civil case to recover over GH¢5.7 billion from Dr Kwabena Duffour and the other Defendants, the High Court granted an application by Dr Kwabena Duffour and the other Defendants, and struck out uniBank’s case against them, based on the argument that Nii Amanor Dodoo should not have accepted Bank of Ghana’s appointment as Receiver of uniBank on the basis that two years had not passed since he worked on the team of the Official Administrator of uniBank.

uniBank, acting through the Receiver as its legal representative, appealed against the decision on 28 June 2021 and filed an application for Stay of Execution.

It argued that:

1. the High Court’s ruling was likely to be reversed on appeal, and
2. a successful appeal would be rendered useless if (while the appeal was pending) Dr Duffour, the other defendants and anybody else relied on the now-suspended ruling to the detriment of uniBank.

In a unanimous judgment read by Justice Mrs Margaret Welbourne, a Justice of the Appeal Court, the Court of Appeal held that the grounds of appeal contained “arguable points of law”.

The Court of Appeal also ruled that uniBank, acting through the Receiver as its legal representative, had demonstrated that there were “exceptional circumstances” supporting the suspension of the High Court’s ruling, including the impact the ruling could have on the entire financial sector.

The import of this decision by the second highest court in Ghana is that Nii Amanor Dodoo can continue to act as Receiver of uniBank, while the appeal progresses.