The flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has called on the current administration to curb what he calls a “predatory bailout assault on the remaining banks” in the country through the Ghana Amalgamated Trust (GAT).
The GAT which is made up of some private pension funds in the country, has been put in place to support five banks that were unable to meet the GHc400 million capital requirement but were solvent.
The five banks were: ADB, NIB, merged Omni/Bank Sahel Sahara, Universal Merchant Bank, and Prudential Bank.
The government earlier stressed that the banks in the arrangement must not consider the support they will be receiving as a bailout program.
However, on his maiden social media engagement with Ghanaians, dubbed: “hashtag #JohnMahamaLive“ Mr. Mahama described the intervention as a bailout program, saying the current government must reveal the beneficial shareholders of the GAT.
“We call on the Akufo-Addo government to lift the veil on the beneficial shareholders of the Ghana Amalgamated Trust and to curb its supposed predatory bailout assault on the remaining banks which include state-owned banks.”
Parliament defers passage of GHc2bn for Ghana Amalgamated Trust
The Government’s decision to support the five banks through the GAT program suffered a setback in March 2019, as Parliament deferred the passage of a GHc2 billion cedis sovereign guarantee for use by the Trust.
After a debate on the Finance Committee report which recommended its approval by majority decision, the House did not have the required numbers by law to approve the guarantee.
The Minority in rejecting the deal said even though it was important to save the banks involved, the government’s approach was flawed.
