The National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer John Dramani Mahama has been asked by Groupe Nduom management to reinstate GN Bank’s licence in the event that he wins the elections on December 7.
In August of 2019, the Bank of Ghana revoked GN Bank’s licence. On Friday, July 19, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, Global President of Groupe Nduom, voiced concerns about the declining condition of the bank’s 300 locations nationwide at a meeting with the outgoing president in Accra.
Dr. Nduom stressed that the bank failure resulted in a large loss of jobs, severely impoverishing the families of those who had worked there.
He underlined how detrimental it is to people’s livelihoods and the larger community.
Therefore, in an effort to restore jobs and lessen the pain of people impacted, Dr. Nduom appealed Mr. Mahama to give the reinstatement of GN Bank first priority if he is elected in the upcoming elections.
“We believe that if this administration doesn’t give us our license before they leave and start paying the money before they leave, we believe that the next one will understand the situation and give the license back.”
“So we are continuing with the hope and preparing and working our plans with the hope that, at some point, we will get the license back and we’ll bring the jobs back. Because it is the jobs that we are also looking for.”
“So we feel that collapsing a 300-branch financial entity is inimical to the economic interest of the country. So whether it even belongs to us or belongs to someone else, it is something that needs to be there,” he stated.
Mr Mahama criticized the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for its decision to revoke the licenses of several indigenous financial institutions as part of the 2019 banking sector cleanup, calling it a hasty action.
He further revealed that his administration plans to initiate an independent review of the entire banking sector cleanup process.
“I do think that government was hasty in what it did. If you look at the criteria that was used, I mean, it didn’t fit. It was not a one-size-fits-all. I mean, it was just like different rules for different folks and so, yes, as you said, a lot of these banks had also financed government suppliers and contractors and the government owed them and they owed the banks.”
“But how would they recover that money if you don’t pay the contractors to pay them? And so I do think that it was hasty, and it’s affected indigenous capital in the financial and banking sector. And we have pledged that we would work to restore, you know, the capital of indigenous businesses in the financial sector.
“So we are advocating an independent review of the processes that went into the banking sector clean up and where we believe these were unjustifiable, look at the restoration of the licenses of these banks,” he said.