A shareholder of the defunct uniBank Ghana Limited, Dr Kwabena Duffour, has filed a suit at the courts to reclaim uniBank, which the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on August 1, 2018, collapsed along with four other banks on grounds of insolvency.
The Bank of Ghana on August 1, 2018 merged five banks into the Consolidated Bank of Ghana with the explanation that, investigations had established that they were insolvent.
However, through his lawyer, Professor Raymond Atuguba, Dr Kwabena Duffuor filed the suit over the revocation of the license of uniBank.
According to his Statement of Claim, Dr Duffour, who is a former Minister of Finance and a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana wants the High Court to order the Bank of Ghana to give him back his bank.
When the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison announced the withdrawal of the license of uniBank on August 1, he explained that government has issued a bond totaling $5.6 billion to cater for bad assets of the five collapsed banks.
The Governor said uniBank is under capitalised and that the bank is beyond rehabilitation since an Asset Quality Review update in 2016 revealed that it is significantly undercapitalised.
According to the BoG, even though uniBank submitted a capital restoration plan, the plan however, yielded no success in returning it to solvency and compliance with prudential requirements.
However, in his suit, Dr Duffour is asking for an order of injunction restraining the Bank of Ghana from expropriating uniBank by its purported vesting of “good assets and liabilities” in Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited.
Other reliefs are that, he wants a declaration that the license purportedly granted to the Consolidated Bank is not granted in accordance with Act 930 and therefore is “null and void.”