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The former Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor and former Finance Minister was seeking the High Court to restrain the Central Bank from taking over the assets and liabilities of uniBank.
However, the court presided over by Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah, said counsel for the plaintiff had used the wrong procedure in complaining about the revocation and also alleging an abuse of his fundamental human rights.
The judge in her ruling said said the matter of revocation of uniBank licence must first be heard by an arbitration center as prescribed under Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, 2016 (Act 930).
The Act prescribes that any person aggrieved by a decision of the central bank such as revocation of a licence “shall resort to arbitration under the rules of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Center established under the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798)."
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On the alleged abuse of the fundamental human rights of majority shareholder, the court noted that the matter must be brought to it via a motion and not a writ of summons as used by the plaintiff.
UniBank, together with four other indigenous banks – Soverign, BEIGE, Construction and Royal Banks – have been merged to form the Consolidated Bank of Ghana Limited.
The Central Bank explained that the merger became necessary after some of the banks fell below the indigenous bank's Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) and others breached regulations.
However, Dr. Duffour believes the licence purportedly granted the Consolidated Bank "was not granted in accordance with Act 930 and is null and void."