You don’t understand the severity of NIB’s problems –Minority to Annoh-Dompreh

The Minority in Parliament has reacted to comments made by the Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, on the challenges faced by the National Investment Bank (NIB).

Annoh-Dompreh had asked the Minority to stop politicizing matters related to the National Investment Bank (NIB) and rather encourage the government to recapitalize the bank.

According to him, “What the government should be encouraged and urged to do is to help in the recapitalization but not to run down the bank. So, our colleagues in the Minority should stop this politicization of all matters, especially matters related to the financial sector.

“If they don’t have the facts, they should just be patient, investigate, and get the facts before they come out,” he added.

Reacting to this, Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, said, “We want people who believe that they understand the issues, have command over the issues, and have something to offer on the table. We provided very concrete solutions to NIB. Throughout his (Annoh-Dompreh’s) conversation, he did not provide one solution. So between us and him, who is politicizing the issue? He admits that since 2017, NIB has failed to publish audited financial reports required by law. That is the biggest red flag that anybody with the slightest knowledge of finance would be worried about, and if I were the MD of NIB, I would shut up. Annoh-Dompreh doesn’t understand the seriousness of this.

“The NIB has outsourced its treasury function to a brokerage firm, in which they share a profit of 60% to the brokerage firm and 40% to NIB when NIB has a full-fledged treasury department headed by a general manager…This is not an easy matter. This is a technical financial subject, and we shouldn’t be allowing people who just come and speak English to be discussing technical matters that are beyond them,” he said on Citi FM.

The Minority in Parliament has kicked against the decision by the government and the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to allow the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to acquire the National Investment Bank (NIB).

It said instead of the acquisition and the subsequent liquidation of NIB, the government and the BoG must recapitalise NIB to make it more liquid.

Their request follows recent reports indicating a possibility of ADB acquiring NIB, which is facing significant financial challenges with liabilities exceeding GHS 2 billion.

According to the reports, the government came to this decision because it is unable to continue advancing financial support to NIB.