A former employee of GN Bank Ghana, Philip Sarpiah, has stated that the collapse of the bank was a well-organized scheme to destroy an indigenous business.
The former employee who mounted a one-man demonstration to urge President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to reinstate the bank’s operating licence in 2023 claimed that the causes for the bank’s collapse were all part of a conspiracy.
He recounted how in 2016, a document went viral informing Ghanaians of a plot by the Akufo-Addo-led government to destroy Ghanaian-owned banks and other businesses.
According to him, after the document leaked, they treated it as propaganda, but the collapse of the GN Bank and other banks has affirmed the authenticity of that document.
Mr. Sarpiah worked for the bank for eight years before the revocation of its license in 2019 as part of a financial sector clean-up initiated by the government.
He was in charge of the Micro Enterprise Department, which involved the management of all mobile bankers for the 300 branches.
Dr. Ren told Rainbow Radio 92.4FM that before the bank folded, it employed over 6,000 young people, many of whom had completed senior high school.
The bank’s model aimed to build wealth, create jobs, and improve life for traders in remote areas, but the government came in to disrupt this initiative.
He accused former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and the Governor of the Central Bank, Dr. Ernest Addison of leading the charge.
The first move initiated, he said, was to raise the minimum capital, describing the increment as outrageous.
He likened the situation to that of a landlord who was previously charging a tenant Ghc500 a month but, all of a sudden, decided to increase the rent to Ghc2,000, representing a 300 percent increment.
“This means that the landlord wants to evict you. That was how the minimum capital for the bank was increased from Ghc130 million to Ghc400 million. The Bank of Ghana failed to consider the government’s indebtedness to the company in deciding on the company’s solvency.”
In 2019, the Bank of Ghana revoked the licenses of 23 savings and loans companies and finance house companies, including GN Bank.
The bank sought legal action to challenge the revocation.
However, an Accra High Court upheld the decision, stating the bank had the right to revoke the license.
The court ruled that the central bank was carrying out its lawful mandate in the interest of the shareholders and by extension the public, and could not be faulted.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
