News concerning licence revocation of five indigenous banks in Ghana have been met with mixed reactions from the public.
While majority of Ghanaians commended Bank of Ghana (BoG) for revoking the licences of the indigenous banks, others also think heads must roll at the central bank for negligence.
The five banks namely Unibank, Royal Bank, Sovereign Bank, Beige Capital and Bank for Construction, breached regulatory rules (according to BoG). This compelled BoG to applied the set out sanctions in its capacity as the central bank and regulator of those banks last week.
Conscious of the losses to be suffered by depositors, the government then steps in to establish a bank, issue a bond and capital to be used to cover for the deposits that are at risk as a result of the revocation of the licences (application of the sanctions).
It is more like a collaboration between the two thus, to enforce the law and to protect depositors.
It is however, sad to note that, almost 10 billion cedis of taxpayers money, which could have been used to improve livelihood of Ghanaians is now going to be used to support the recklessness of these local entrepreneurs.
Imagine what 10 billion could do to this country. This bail out funds could pay for the entire free SHS for nine solid years.
MTN for instance, built the Tema Maternity ward for under five million cedis. This money could build 2,000 of such facilities across the country and give space and comfort to our wives, mothers and sisters to deliver in peace.
The Legon Medical Centre was built for 200 million dollars (about GHC 920m). This money could build similar ones in each of the 10 regions of Ghana. Check the number of roads this could construct.
Yet, we are wasting these on privately held banks because of the effects their eventual collapse will have on the economy.
It is sad people are being sentimental about it that we are killing local entrepreneurs because of their licences had been revoked.
Have we also thought about the pregnant women who could die because we have not been able to provide them with safe spaces to deliver?
Now BoG is working under the current leadership but what happened to the banking supervision unit of the BoG in the past? Heads must roll.
People must be prosecuted and jailed for negligence, connivance, misrepresentation by false pretenses, fraud, etc.
It’s high time we desist from cronyism, nepotism, and influence peddling in acquiring business permits and licenses. It is highly unethical.
Let’s celebrate genuine hard work and not people who all of a sudden from nowhere use unfair and unethical means to achieve success overnight. We need a serious reorientation as a people on values of success and integrity.
Today it is Unibank, Royal bank, construction bank, Beige bank and Sovereign bank. Tomorrow will be another company.
People are using fictitious means to acquire licenses and permits to operate radio stations, filling stations, pharmacies, hospitals, schools, banks, microfinance, savings and loans, restaurants, just name it.
They do this to acquire bragging rights and to be seen as successful business people. We need strong indigenous banks to make our economy strong, but it is important that we do this with high integrity.
John Kelly
