The decision by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to put Unibank under administration has been hailed by chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah – who maintained that it will go a long way to sanitise the banking sector.
“It is the proper thing for the BoG to do, because if you are not careful and the bank goes under water it is liquidated; then I would have also lost my deposit at Unibank.”
For him, most of the banking sector failures are born out of corporate management issues. “It is for my father so I am the managing director: they venture into things – DKM had airports, a cement company; if you go into some of these things, they have a lot that they are not well-versed in.”
In actual fact, he said, the BoG should have moved in a long time ago.
“If they go along this path, every month another bank will go, another savings and loans. So, they try to manage the system; they come to your aid, they inject liquidity – they offer you support, try to get you back on your feet.”
According to Dr. Assibey-Yeboah, the true test of the banks’ strength will show by December 2018, when all banks have to meet the new minimum capital requirement of GH₵400m – which he reckons will see some banks “going under water”.
On whether heads will roll at Unibank, he stated: “Absolutely; if people have breached laws and the administrator comes to a conclusion that they be referred to the appropriate quarters, I think those will be done. But we haven’t got there yet”.
The Bank of Ghana (BOG), on Tuesday, announced that UniBank Ghana Limited (UniBank) had been placed under administration due to its increasing bad books.
The appointment of the official administrator, according to the central bank, is aimed at saving UniBank from imminent collapse.
The announcement comes just two weeks after uniBank announced a takeover of adb after some shareholders of the latter pledged their shares in the bank to it, which BoG at the time dismissed and explained that it has not approved any such agreement.
