‘Be slow to speak’ – Ofori-Atta throws Bible verse at banking crisis critics

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta has quoted Bible verses to critics who say the collapse of some nine banks was needless and politically motivated.

Referring to James 2:10, the minister said “let mature Ghanaians be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”

The central bank’s financial sector reform programme implemented from 2017 continues to remain controversial.

 

In the biggest reform in banking history in Ghana, the  Bank of Ghana (BOG) revoked the licenses of nine universal banks. Prominent among them was UT Bank, Unibank, Capital Bank, and Beige Bank.

347 micro-finance companies also had their operational licenses revoked. 155 of these had already ceased operations. Some 39 microcredit companies or money lenders, 15 savings and loans companies, eight finance house companies, and two non-bank financial institutions were also closed.

 

The banks were declared insolvent with their CEOs, Directors, and Managers cited for misappropriating company funds.

A report by the Bank of Ghana into the collapse of UT and Capital banks revealed that several high-profile directors of the banks used a carefully spun web of related party transactions to grant huge loans to themselves and their associates.

The government has dragged some former directors of the defunct banks to court over the matter.

Founder of the defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien, and three others have been slapped with 26 charges for their roles leading to the collapse of the financial institution.

The three include Tetteh Nettey, Fitzgerald Odonkor and Kate Quartey-Papafio -who all served as executives of the bank.

They were charged with conspiracy to steal contrary to sections 23 (1) and 124 (1) of the criminal offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).

According to the state, Fitzgerald Odonkor between October and November 2015  abetted William Ato-Essien and Tetteh Nettey to dishonestly appropriate the sum of hundred million Ghana Cedis (GHC100,000,000)  belonging to Capital Bank Limited.

Founder of UT, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, and CEO of defunct Beige Bank, Mike Nyinaku, were also dragged to court by the state for their various roles which led to the collapse of the financial institutions.

A record closure in Ghana’s history which regulators and government have insisted was necessary to protect depositors and sanitize and strengthen a poorly regulated sector.

So far, the clean-up has cost the government 21billion cedis.

But the latest to raise questions about the decision has been the founder of Perez Chapel, Bishop Charles Agyin-Asare.

The man of God during one of his sermons in church blamed politicians for the collapse of some Ghanaian businesses. Urging congregants to pray against the ‘demon’ that makes politicians collapse local businesses when they win power, Bishop Agyinasare stated that the collapse of such enterprises were motivated by jealousy.

“Can we say that all the industries and firms we have closed under this regime were because all the people and companies were wrong? And we could not have done anything to have preserved these companies? I have been asking myself, so for Mr Duffuor who used to be Finance minister and one time Governor of the Bank OF Ghana under whose turn as minister we had the best economic growth rate; 14% in a particular year, was there nothing we could do with his bank?

“What about Dr. Ndoum who introduced or expanded susu banking and had branches than any commercial bank in Ghana and more customers, then my own Amoabeng who helped me grow my first $100,000 through investment which I gave to the church as part of contribution towards the building of the Dome. Could nothing have been done to save those Financial institutions? There are some financial institutions whose owners were rogues and careless and so yes; but these ones,” the man of God told his congregants.

But presenting the Mid-Year Budget Review and Supplementary Budget in parliament on Thursday, the  Finance minister had words for critics.

Ken Ofori-Atta said critics should not “stand on the staple and proclaim untruths.” He then supported his statement with a Bible verse.