Supreme Court has not ordered closure of our HQ – Ecobank

Management of Ecobank has refuted reports that the Supreme Court has ordered the closure of its Head Office over a GHC4 million judgment debt.

In the news item, Ecobank was to pay GHC4 million with an accrued interest of GHC10million dating back to 2015 to Yuri M Plastics, a fourth defendant in the case.

But the Pan-African banking conglomerate in a press release refuted the claim stated that ‘no such execution has been levied on the bank.”

“Ecobank is open for business and assures all stakeholders and the general public that the Bank is fully compliant with all legal and regulatory directives” the statement read.

Deputy Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications of Ecobank Ghana, Dr. Daniel Kassertee said, there were some police officers and court officials at Ecobank’s head office to execute a court order but they were stopped

“Our attention was drawn to the fact that there was somebody here with the presence of the police and armed men to execute an order. We approached them and realized that was a wrongful attempt to levy an execution, so we legally stopped them and we spoke to the bailiff and they left,” he told Citi news monitored by theghanareport.com.

He, however, confirmed that the bank had been in court over the payments.

“Certainly, the bank has been in court with a certain individual who was not in court with the bank. He was in court with his own company and also the bank.  At the end of the day, the bank was asked to pay some money to the company, not the individual. We have since done that, and the court has fixed date in October to make a decision,” Kassertee said.

Background

Citi News has reported that an official with the Yuri M Plastic products secured a loan from Ecobank in the name of the plastic company.

Without due diligence, Ecobank approved the loan. As attempts by Ecobank to retrieve the loan proved futile, it secured a court order which permitted it to take control of the plastic company. With time, the Plastic company also sued Ecobank and demanded damages.

The court then ordered Ecobank to also make payment of GHC4 million Ghana Cedis to Yuri M plastic products in 2015, but the company says it is yet to receive the money, hence this action, following the court order for the seizure of the bank’s movable and immovable properties.