Gov’t wants financial sector ceded to foreigners – Ato Forson

Cassiel Ato Forson[/caption] Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel  Ato Forson has accused government of collapsing Ghana’s financial sector with hopes of ceding the sector to foreigners. According to Ato Forson, it is unacceptable for government to sit aloof watching indigenous banks collapse under its leadership. “This is an administration that wants to collapse the financial sector and cede it to foreigners, and I do not think that is the right way to go,” Ato Forson said. The Minority Spokesperson made these comments in relation to recent takeover of uniBank by the Bank of Ghana. He stated that it is government’s responsibility to support indigenous banks and ensure they excel in order to boost the financial sector. He said there is the need for Ghanaians and Ghanaian business men to benefit from the financial sector of the economy. “I do not agree with the Central Bank on the corporate governance issues and things that they have raised. There may be issues but that is why you are there on behalf of government to work with them in resolving the issues.” The former Deputy Finance Minister further said the collapse of banks will take a toll on the country’s finances. Ato Forson made reference to recent takeover of UT Bank and Capital Bank, stating that the collapse of the two banks cost the country some 2 billion Ghana cedis. “Unibank is bigger than UT and Capital Bank put together or it is about the same size, so if that will cost us 2 billion, then this is also going to cost us more than 2 billion cedis. The tax payer is going to spend about 4 billion Ghana cedis which is 2% of GDP in servicing this debt,” Ato Forson lamented. He lamented over the possibility of jobs being lost as a result of recent developments with UniBank. “It is a sector that creates jobs, today nobody can tell me that jobs will not be lost. Another bank will take over uniBank even before the next 6 months. It cannot be true that within 6 months they will turn around this bank.” The Bank of Ghana announced on March 20, 2018 that it had appointed auditing firm KPMG, as official administrators for uniBank Ghana Limited. In a statement from the Bank of Ghana, they stated that the move was aimed at saving the bank from collapse. The Bank of Ghana listed insolvency, breach of cash reserve requirement, failure to comply with BoG‘s directives and poor corporate governance by uniBank among other factors as what necessitated the appointment of KMPG as new administrators. As administrators, KPMG will act in line with powers under Act 930 to ascertain the state of the bank’s assets and liabilities, and exercise a variety of powers under the Act to rehabilitate and return the bank to regulatory compliance and viability within a period of six months. By Irene Amesimeku| 3news.com| Ghana]]>