According to him, he doesn't belong to any political party.
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UT Bank collapse political – Kofi Amoabeng
Prince Kofi Amoabeng, the Chief Executive Officer of defunct UT Bank, is blaming the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government led by President Nana Akufo-Addo of collapsing his bank.
Prince Kofi Amoabeng, CEO of defunct UT Bank
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In an interview on Citi TV, Amoabeng said "I don't belong to any party… The interesting thing is that depending on who is speaking, they push you to the other side. Throughout the whole UT thing depending on who is in power, I am [considered as being] on the other side."
He said the bank "wasn't doing that well" at the time the Bank of Ghana collapsed it adding that "the way the government acted, some banks were helped, some banks were closed; that is what irritates me.
"At UT, we created a Ghanaian brand which was respected internationally, so, to come to power to kill a local brand which is admired and used internationally."
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He stated that the government could have bailed the bank instead of revoking its license and ordering the GCB Bank to take over operation because it had severe capital impairment.
"You can bail it out and that is common...Initially, that was what was happening but that was the NDC time," he said.
Committee to probe
On March 22, 2021, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, set up a nine-member committee to probe the collapse of the UT Bank and the uniBank Ghana Limited,
It followed a petition presented to Parliament by the founders of the two banks - Prince Kofi Amoabeng of UT Bank and Dr. Kwabena Duffour - over the collapse of the banks.
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The committee, chaired by the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, will commence work while Parliament is on recess, and is expected to submit its report to the House at the commencement of the second meeting of Parliament on May 18, 2021.
Prince Kofi Amoabeng
Pulse Ghana
Other members of the committee are the Deputy Minority Leader, James Klutse Avedzi; NDC MP for Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson; MP for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, and MP for Techiman North, Mrs. Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare.
Others include the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin; MP for Essikado, Joe Ghartey; MP for Okaikwei Central, Patrick Yaw Boamah and the NPP MP for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta-Akyea.
Background
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The Bank of Ghana revoked the licenses of nine banks in its bid to clean up the sector. The BoG cited various reasons including capital adequacy ratio crisis, poor corporate governance, overexposure to related parties among others.
The Central bank in 2017 approved that the good assets of Capital Bank and UT bank be taken over by GCB Bank while it appointed Vish Ashiagbor of Pwc as receiver to make the most out of the remaining assets.
Barely a year on, the BoG revoked the licenses of five other banks – Unibank, Construction Bank, The Royal Bank, Beige Bank, and Sovereign Bank. Their good assets were merged to form Consolidated Bank, Ghana.
Some of the former owners have been contesting the BoG's decision. Notable among them is Unibank which was owned by a former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor.
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