The Minority Caucus of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament has made a call on Thursday for the government to undertake a substantial overhaul of the reportedly struggling National Investment Bank (NIB) in order to prevent the possible dissolution of the bank.
During a press conference held at Parliament House, Mr. Isaac Adongo, who serves as the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, challenged the government’s contemplation of liquidating NIB.
He suggested that there might be undisclosed reasons driving the government’s decision.
Mr. Adongo pointed out that there is a viable alternative to address the bank’s challenges, as proposed by the NDC and the Minority.
They advocate for the government to restructure NIB’s financial position by converting all of NIB’s debts owed to the government into equity.
“The government should just restructure the balance sheet of NIB to swap all the NIB debts that it owes the government and give the government equity but the government says it doesn’t have money to capitalise the bank but it has given 500 million bonds to NIB and it has given 800 million debt to NIB the two will give you 1.2 billion…commit to say that is your commitment to recapitalisation so we issue shares for you,” Mr Adongo alleged.
The Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, told the press that the Caucus would only support the ratification of the $250 million World Bank facility for the financial stability fund if ailing state banks were given priority.