Prominent Ghanaian businessman and co-founder of the defunct UT Bank, Kofi Amoabeng, remains astonished by the government’s decision to collapse several banks in 2017 over claims of misappropriation of funds.
In an appearance on Joy News’ “Exclusive” with Benjamin Akakpo, where they discussed the state of Ghana’s economy and the government’s performance in recent years, Amoabeng expressed his surprise at the government’s decision to spend a whopping six billion dollars ($6bn) on a purported banking sector cleanup and later goes to IMF for a loan of three billion.
“There was a cleansing in the financial sector and we used 25 billion govt figures. That was about 6 billion dollars. And after loosing 6 billion in the cleaning we were left with the option of going to the IMF for a loan of 3bn.
And I mean really? who does that ?” he quizzed.
On his part, government could sill have done that clean up to the best of its ability and attained the best of results with half the amount it spent.
“And I bet the govt could have done that cleansing in any form they wanted to about half that amount at best” he stated.
argued that the government could have investigated the alleged misappropriations and provided bailouts to the struggling banks.
He suggested that once the banks had regained their footing in the market, they could have repaid the loans. According to Amoabeng, the government should not have collapsed the banks in 2017.
While expressing his frustration, Amoabeng highlighted the need for measured silence to avoid being perceived as bitter due to his victimization in the cleanup.
He referenced a similar situation in the United States in 2008, where the government cushioned banks facing a similar crisis. In contrast, he noted that in Ghana, local banks were shut down while foreign banks were allowed to remain operational.
He fumed “There is a bit of hatred , jealousy not investigating and so on and so forth. I don’t want to talk about that because it will be like so he his bank was taken so he is bitter.
We don’t do that. when banks are having problems, you investigate and bail them out. And thy thrive or survive and pay what they have to pay.it happened in America with bigger banks in 2008.
We did a process which cleared the indigenous banks, leaving the country for foreign banks.
who does that? I can’t even explain, ask myself maybe I’m a bit crazy. How can anybody that way about his own country”.
Asking about how he will define the actions of government he said that move was a “clear mismanagement, they messed up” he added.
What’s wrong with kofi Amoabeng? You are equally guilty of corruption. You took Customers savings and gave them to your chn, you don’t have any moral right to talk Abt corruption. Who is corrupt than u Kofi? Stop abusing the air wave. Shame to u
I think npp does feed you you talk without thinking it never effected you nether your family
What is wrong with this man,didn’t Mahama cushion them,and what happened,they squandered all the funds,used it with their girlfriends expecting this government to do same…Kofi,u yourself u are the most corrupt n reckless person,please go n sleep.