Founder of UT Bank, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, has revealed the circumstances surrounding how he learned about the takeover of his bank by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in 2017.
During the period of the bank’s takeover, he was not actively involved in its operations. In subsequent interviews, he has maintained that the decision was partly politically motivated.
In a conversation on the Twitter podcast “Bro Code,” hosted by KalyJay, Amoabeng recounted the sequence of events that led him to the shocking news. It involved a series of missed calls and a call to his daughter, eventually leading to the revelation of the takeover.
“If you go to calls (on your phone), all the contacts you miss are red. I saw my whole phone was red. I thought I had pressed something. Then I checked and I had missed call numbering about 60.
“Then I said no, something is very wrong. Then I saw one of the missed calls was from my daughter and I called her and asked, ‘Awo, why is everybody looking for me?’ because I was very apprehensive…” he recounted.
His daughter directed him to listen in to the news because UT Bank was all over the media.
“And she said ‘haven’t you listened to the news this morning?’ I said no, she said go to any station, they are discussing the government’s decision to close UT Bank. I said ‘okay. Then it is done,” he added.
Meanwhile, the 2024 flagbearer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Dramani Mahama has pledged to restore the licences of financial businesses who were run out of business unjustifiably should he win the next poll.
The former president made the promise while speaking at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Tamale on Monday, May 15, 2023 to formally accept his role as flagbearer.
According to Mr Mahama, one of the objectives of the next NDC government will be to promote robust local participation in the banking and financial, telecommunication, tourism, mining, and agric and manufacturing sectors to grow the economy and create sustainable employment for the youth.
The banking crisis in Ghana led to the revocation of the licenses of more than 400 financial institutions that were licensed under the Act, 2016 (Act 930) by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) between 2017 and 2020.
The Central Bank conducted an Asset Quality Review of banks in 2015 and 2016, which identified several indigenous banks facing significant challenges.
These challenges included high levels of non-performing loans, undercapitalization, and weak corporate governance.
To address these issues, BEIGE, Sovereign, Construction, UniBank (owned by former Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor), and Royal Bank were merged to form a new entity known as the Consolidated Bank of Ghana.
Also, more than twenty financial institutions, including UT Bank which was owned by Prince Kofi Amoabeng, had their licenses revoked and given to a receivership.
Following the recapitalization of the banks and a new capital requirement, the number of banks in the country reduced from 36 to 23.
Ghana invested more than twelve billion Ghana cedis for this clean-up exercise in the banking sector.