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Opinions of Thursday, 17 August 2017

Columnist: Fadi Dabbousi

Collapse of Banks; An NDC tsunami of incompetence

UT Bank UT Bank

When the Vice-President, then candidate Dr Bawumia, warned of a looming calamity with the untenable perpetuity of some banks in the country, the NDC that was ruling at the time branded him with all sorts of unspellable description, derogatory to the extreme. That was the time when the former President, John Dramani Mahama, and his brainless lot were busy applying the mathematics of the libido, deriving equations and conclusions that ended up with the collapse of the economy.

They borrowed massively just to support their capricious indulgence, dishing out cars to their posteriorly endowed gals, chooboi chiefs, queen mothers, and all those that dared go on radio and television to insult our current President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Unfortunately for Kokoon Anyidoho, he shouted choooooooooboi until his hoarse voice disappeared into the wilderness, but was rewarded with a busanga bicycle. He couldn’t ride it because the tyre blasted from the first attempt!

That is how the local banks became unbalanced and strangulated. They borrowed from the international community to pay interest while they continued with their reign of terror, horror, and thievery. They gave contracts to Joseph Siaw Agyepong that they paid for in full. They shared the money, unbothered by the non-execution of those deals because they were mere conduits for siphoning the nation’s wealth.

The abomination of the NDC compounded the problems of the banks. Even though the Honourable Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, recently announced that government’s indebtedness to those institutions would be liquidated by the end of September this year (next month), Capital and UT Banks were unsustainable. What people need to understand is that Nana Akufo-Addo has saved the day for clients, and the jobs of thousands of employees.

You see, many customers, and verily a large majority of the public, do not know that if a bank collapses, their moneys would disappear too. Under certain terms and conditions, no matter the size of the account and the millions it contains, the customer will not be paid more than a meager fraction of their deposits, if they got lucky at all. Even then, that would have to go through a long process of litigation, which is often more expensive. When the Libyan Bank collapsed in the 1980s, people just lost their savings. In fact one tenacious customer took them on and received $40,000 (forty thousand US Dollars), but paid far more than that in legal fees. He had millions of Cedis and dollars at that time lodged with the bank. The Orca building along the graphic road in Accra was their head office.

So the takeover by the Ghana Commercial Bank of the two, Capital and UT, was but a pragmatic measure to protect the deposits of innocent people. Imagine if the government had not stepped in to save the day, customers would be lined up at the hospitals for the shock that such losses would have afflicted them with.

Those that are doing dirty politics with this most patriotic government initiative must understand that some of them had accounts with the defunct Capital and UT banks that were saved by the heroism of the Economic Managament Team led by His Excellency Dr Bawumia, Hon Senior Minister Osafo Marfo, Hon Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, of course with approval from the real compassionate President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The best thing to do at this juncture is to thank Almighty ALLAH that the customers did not suffer collapse. We must also thank our visionary President for saving the day. Indeed, yet another dark day in our history was averted by Ghana Commercial Bank’s takeover of the UT and Capital.

Do remember that the once powerful Amal Bank collapsed because Ibrahim Mahama did not pay back the huge loan of over $45 million US Dollars. People were not given their money when this bank was liquidated. Many suffered heart attacks and died, while others tasted acute penury because this greedy person decided to buy the same bank with the money he embezzled, which left it insolvent. He was shielded by his brother ex-president John Dramani Mahama, of impotent memory, as was said.

Thank you Nana Akufo-Addo for saving customers of the collapsed banks from imminent disaster. A special thank you goes to each member of the EMT, Dr Bawumia, Hon Osafo-Marfo, Hon Ken Ofori-Atta, and others who worked diligently to save the day, a golden effort that eventually protected the dear lives of customers, Ghanaians and foreigners alike. For this reason, I ask all those who have the sense to understand, and the prudence to read between the lines, to put their trust in GOD and this government of excellent thinkers, shakers, and doers. Ghana, your motherland, is becoming Great and Strong Again!