Founder of defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien has claimed Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta and board chairman of the Enterprise Group Keli Gadzekpo proposed to buy his bank in 2016.
According to him, the narrative surrounding the status of the bank after it was put into administration has changed significantly and it was time for him to speak out.
“If the bank was that bad would the current finance minister and the board chairman of Enterprise Keli Gadzekpo come to my office to say we are interested to buy Capital bank? Ken Ofori Attah came to my office in 2016 to make that proposal,” he told Paul Adom-Otchere in a yet to be broadcast edition of Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV.
He also dismissed claims that the board chair of the bank Dr. Mensah Otabil lacked the requisite knowledge to lead the board and direct affairs of the bank.
The development comes in the wake of claims by the CEO of defunct UT Bank Prince Amoabeng that his bank loaned money to the finance minister’s company when it was struggling sometime in the past.
“In actual fact, our president; today’s president, when he was in opposition in his own party in around 2003, he came to UT of all places, a local company, and we gave him a loan and he admits that.
“The Minister of Finance, same thing; his own company would have gone down…and I said this’s Ghanaian company and they still got the potential and we help them out,” Mr Amoabeng said in an interview with TV3.
The Bank of Ghana on Monday, August 14, 2017 revoked the licences of UT and Capital banks due to their insolvency, leading to a seamless takeover of the two banks by GCB Bank.