Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UT Bank, Kofi Amoabeng, has revealed that he left the bank 18 months before its collapse in 2017.
Speaking in an interview on TV3’s The Day Show on 2 November 2023, with host Bella Mundi, he said “I left the bank about 18 months before the bank closed. I’m in court now as we speak. I mean, 18 months — if there had been anything, it would have come out. Because there was a new MD (managing director) and the board was also functioning.” His detachment from the bank during its terminal phase was emphasised, hinting at his non-involvement in the ensuing financial debacle.
He revealed that although he was in court over the closure of the bank, he had nothing to hide.
On matters concerning his personal tribulations following the bank’s closure, Amoabeng revealed the legal challenges he faced just to obtain his passport for a medical check-up, “I wanted to go for a medical check-up, right? And we go to court for them to release my passport to me. After up and down, up and down, the judge said ‘I don’t see how I would keep his passport, let him go and check himself and come back because after all if he dies the case would die’.”
The struggle extended beyond the courtroom. Amoabeng narrated an incident that underscored his unexpected designation as a ‘security risk’ which led to the denial of an entry visa to the United States: “I went to the American Embassy, and I have been going to America since the 80s, the embassy refused me an entry visa. When I checked through the back door, there was a letter from some government department saying I was a security risk, or I shouldn’t be made to fly, even after the court had given me my passport,” he elucidated.
Amoabeng did not hold back on his views about the current state of political affairs and its impact on institutional integrity in Ghana. “What happens is that you have people who are envious, who are jealous, who are vindictive and they hide behind the institutions, they are like cockroaches actually, …so you will not see them, but you will know that they are causing havoc,” he expressed.
Further discussing the influence of government on state institutions, he said, “And it is also sad because the government when they come into power, they compromise the state institutions, all. They change all the heads and they put their puppets, or their cronies, or their cohort or whatever, and they can really make you uncomfortable if they want to. It is a matter of telling whoever you put there that, make the guy uncomfortable.”
Despite the adversities, Amoabeng‘s philosophical outlook remains unshaken. He shared his ethos on personal vendettas and the futility of hatred, “As I sit here, I still don’t hate anybody. I don’t have time, because I will be eating my own mind [up]. I don’t have it.
So I only pray to God that whoever hates me, God should tone down on the punishment for the person. Because God loves me so if you hate me He will punish you. You should pray for your enemies. I pray for them, after all how much do you need.”
Amoabeng, who founded UT Bank in 1997, witnessed its rise to a significant player in Ghana’s banking sector. The bank’s journey came to an abrupt end in 2017 when the Bank of Ghana revoked its licence due to insolvency and capital deficiencies.
Beyond the financial loss, the closure impacted lives, leading to hardship among former employees — a sentiment Amoabeng reflects on with sombreness rather than bitterness. His recent book, “The UT Story: Humble Beginnings”, offers an introspective look at the bank’s narrative and its unforeseen end.