According to the businessman, the Bank of Ghana collapsed Heritage Bank for the reason that its majority shareholder, Mr Seidu Agongo, did not meet the “fit-and-proper” criterion, even though he is a Ghanaian with the financial wherewithal to establish and own a bank.
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It 's extremely order odd when the BoG says Agongo can't own a bank - Amoabeng
The founder and CEO of the now-defunct UT Bank, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, has said the revocation of the licence of the Ghanaian-owned Heritage Bank was “extremely odd”.
Kofi Amoabeng
In his view, the revocation of the licence of the Ghanaian-owned bank, whose founder, Mr Agongo, has always argued was above board, as far as its books were concerned, was not only politically motivated but also “extremely unfair and unfortunate”.
Asked directly by TV3’s Paa Kwesi Asare in an interview on Business Focus: ‘Do you think, as many think, that some of the decision to close down certain banks was politically motivated?’ Mr Amoabeng answered: “A few of them; specifically Heritage Bank”.
“I don’t understand the issue because the Chairman of the Board is Dr Kwesi Botchwey. I have a lot of respect for him when it comes to finance in this country and managing Boards and he will not, in my estimation, ever accept to be Chairman of a bank that is not right and dealing in all sorts of things. I can say that for him”, Mr Amoabeng, whose bank was also among the nine Ghanaian banks that collapsed during the central bank’s financial clean-up exercise in President Nana Akufo-Addo’s first term of office, noted.
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Mr Amoabeng noted: “I find it extremely odd that a bank – and it had not started doing business for it to have bad loans and all those things – and for you to say that the owner didn’t have what it takes [doesn’t meet the fit-and-proper criterion] or however they put it, I mean the owner doesn’t run the bank, he’s a Ghanaian, he’s got the money, he’s appointed the right people to run the bank for him, so, what is the excuse?”
“I find that extremely, extremely unfair”, Mr Amoabeng asserted.
The Bank of Ghana revoked Heritage Bank’s licence on Friday, 4 January 2019 on the basis that Mr Agongo, the majority shareholder, among other things, used proceeds realised from alleged fraudulent contracts he executed for the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), for which he has been facing prosecution together with former COCOBOD CEO Stephen Opuni, for the past four years.
Announcing the withdrawal of the licence, the Governor of the central bank, Dr Ernest Addison, told journalists – when asked if he did not deem the action as premature, since the COCOBOD case was still in court.
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