The Founder and owner of GN Savings and loans Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom has dismissed claims by the Bank of Ghana that over $62 million were illegally transferred to a related company, International Business Solutions, in the USA.
GN Savings and loans and 22 other companies in the savings and loans sector were on Friday closed down by the Bank of Ghana.
The BOG in a statement said “The revocation of the licences of these institutions has become necessary because they are insolvent even after a reasonable period within which the Bank of Ghana has engaged with them in the hope that they would be recapitalized by their shareholders to return them to solvency. It is the Bank of Ghana’s assessment that these institutions have no reasonable prospects of recovery, and that their continued existence poses severe risks to the stability of the financial system and to the interests of their depositors.”
In particular reference to GN Bank, the BoG stated that a “recent Bank of Ghana investigation conducted at GN revealed that a significant amount (USD62,255,516.93, GBP718,528.59 and EUR4,200) of depositors’ funds held with GN had been transferred to International Business Solutions (another company owned by Groupe Nduom and which is based in the U.S.A) without any documentation to support such transfers in breach of section 19 of the Foreign Exchange Act 2006, Act 723, Section IV of Bank of Ghana Notice No. BG/GOV/SEC/2007/4, and subsequent Bank of Ghana Notices issued in August 2014 prohibiting such practices.”
However, in a response Dr. Nduom described the claims by the Central Bank as “either gross negligence on the part of the BoG, or a egregious misrepresentation of the truth designed to drag our name in the mud.”
Below is Dr. Nduom’s full post on his Facebook wall
“The information about International Business Solutions is false. International Business Solutions has two main business lines. Management Consulting and Import/Export. All of the funds mentioned are comprised of payments of invoices for goods and services that were rendered in Ghana.
“To use it as justification for any regulatory action is either gross negligence on the part of the BoG, or a egregious misrepresentation of the truth designed to drag our name in the mud.
“The BoG has all the documents for every pesewa transferred out of Ghana and there was absolutely nothing wrong with engaging in an international business. The real scandal is the GHS 2.2 Billion Cedi portfolio that the Ministry of Finance has held hostage for over two years.
“Their refusal to acknowledge and pay these debts is what they are using to destroy a strong Ghanaian company.”