For a nation, most especially a developing one, to succeed, it is all about its people getting well-resourced and encouraged to take commanding heights of business and industry. The advantage here is that revenue generated is mostly retained in the country and re-invested in the business or other sectors. There will be no strain on foreign exchange as less of the country’s currency will chase the hard foreign ones, and this will make the local currenciesgrow stronger.
Ghana had this opportunity in the 70’s with private individuals like Edward Osei Yaw Boakye of United Mattress and Foam Company Ltd,J.K. Siaw of Tata Brewery and Dr. Safo-Adu of Industrial Chemical Laboratories being among leading companies in Africa. Unfortunately, Rawlings and his AFRC/PNDC/NDC came along and collapsed Akan owned companies and brought in foreigners to take over our economy.
Attacks on local industries and businesses, without any good reasons led Ghana into economic slump, as more foreign companies became in-chargedand they repatriated hard currencies back home, which contributed to the weaking of our cedi.
Rawlings and his governments did this mainly based on political and ethnocentric reasons,and did not care that Ghana sinks, if things are in the hands of certain people.
Rawlings came out on June 4, 1993, with a presidential decree that Ghanaians should no longer patronise, products from Darko Farms, Apino Soap, ICL and others, because they will make money to sponsor the opposition.
There was Nana Yaw Oduro, who suddenly took over control of the retail market with his A-Life Supermarket,making the competition very tough for foreign owned retail supermarkets as his prices for his wares were much lower than those sold by the Arabs and Indians.
He went for a huge loan to expand his business, perhaps projecting to have huge supermarkets in every city and urban area in Ghana. Rawlings felt he did not qualify for the facility and mandated that the loan should be withdrawn. That ended the growth of the Ghanaian owned chain-retail business. Nana Yaw Oduro was suspected to be a member of the UP Tradition and would certainly sponsor the NPP.
But in the end, it is Ghana who is suffering, withforeigners now in-charged.
There was Trafalgar Square, an Akan-owned fast-food joint which was giving the Lebanese owned Bus Stop a stiff competition in the Ring Road Central area. It was forced by the authority to relocate to the Accra Baptist Church area until it died out.
What was done to Ghanaian business owners, had led the country to be struggling for survival, when she has citizens, assets and resources to make Ghana the topmost economy in Africa.
One may think that, a new era has started so, Ghanaian business folks and industrialists must be given the necessary support by government to grow and expand across Africa.
Unfortunately, it does not look like we have stripped ourselves off the Rawlings AFRC/PNDC/NDC cloak of if-you-are-not-with-me-then-I must-be-against-you.
With the advent of the current NPP government, the finance minister, announced the increment of minimum capital requirement for the banks, from GH¢120 million to GH¢400 million. This posed lots of problems for Ghanaian owned-banks.
The main issue is the dissolving of some locally owned banks who could not meet the minimum Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) of 13%. Any bank operating below this ratio, is deemed insolvent with its liabilities far exceeding its assets.
In August 2019, one fine patriotic Ghanaian and gentleman, called Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom had his bank GN Bank declared insolvent under section 123 (4) of the Banks and SDIs Act. 2016 (Act 930) for being in breach of its key prudential regulatory requirements, with its CAR at -61%.
But of course, if this is just the case, then GN Bank was fairly treated. However, what came out was that, yes, GN Banks liabilities exceeded its assets due to bad loans.
But, no, most of its customers were contractors who had defaulted on their loan repayments, because government had not paid them.
Bank of Ghana (BoG) may not have in anyway erred, in withdrawing GN Bank’s license to operate, because it followed the law. But unfortunately, no one can compel government to do the right thing in paying off contractors, it owed.
This attack on GN Bank is raising questions to as to whether, there is something more personal that someone is position is basing on that to teach Dr. Nduom some lessons.
The question is what is it that PaaKwesiNduom did wrong to deserve this?
Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom was a minister of state in President Kufuor’s NPP government of two terms, first as minister of energy and then as minister of public sector reforms. He was not a member of the NPP, but Kufuor saw in him, someone who could assist him in driving the country forward, which he did. Did this breed envy and jealousy towards him?
Whatever the case, treatment given to Dr. Nduom, is the same as the bad treatment meted out on those successful Ghanaian business folks and industrialists by the Rawlings’s administrations. Just to show that with power in one’s hand, one can do whatever he likes, even if it means bringing down the country.
By the way, have all the contractors owning GN Bank being paid by government?
Hon. Daniel Dugan
