Chairman of Groupe Ndoum and former owner of the now-defunct Gold Coast Fund Management Company, Dr. Papa Kwesi Ndoum, has recently been visiting his once lively GN Bank offices located in several parts of the country.
In 2019, under the government’s banking sector clean-up, GN Bank (which had become GN Savings and Loans), a company owned by Dr Nduom, had its operating license revoked over reasons of insolvency by the Bank of Ghana.
It’s been over four years and Dr Ndoum has been checking up on what remains of his once lively bank.
In a video sighted on social media, the buildings were dejected, with some areas submerged by water owing to the recent rainfalls.
Dr Nduom could not bear to see what had become of his institution, which provided jobs and income to many Ghanaians.
Meanwhile, Dr Nduom has asserted that the government still owes two of his companies and other subsidiaries an amount exceeding GH¢7 billion.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had revoked the licenses of 53 fund management companies, including Gold Coast Fund Management, in 2019, leading to the freezing of depositors’ funds.
Despite ongoing efforts by depositors and investors to retrieve their funds, they have faced challenges in recovering their investments.
In a recent move to revitalize his companies, Dr. Ndoum has urged the government to reimburse contractors who had borrowed money from Groupe Ndoum.
“A debt that used to be GH¢1.8 billion is now more than GH¢7.1 billion. It is growing every day with interest. So the government of Ghana and its agencies, if they had paid us even one-third of that money to the contractors six years ago, there wouldn’t be a Gold Coast or Black Shield problem.
“There wouldn’t be a GN Bank problem, there wouldn’t be a problem with any of our companies. So today, what we are asking is we are saying let them pay the money. If the government doesn’t have the money, let us come up with a payment plan. They pay us, the customers get paid,” he said.
According to Dr. Ndoum, if the government had settled some of the contractors’ dues earlier, his companies would not be facing the current financial difficulties.