Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, a shareholder of Unibank Ghana Limited, together with Integrated Properties Limited, has sued the Bank Of Ghana following the collapse of seven banks including Unibank Ghana Limited.
It is the case of the Plaintiffs that at the end of July, 2017, Unibank was a leading indigenous bank with the highest paid up capital of GHC 330,130,000 and a capital adequacy ratio of 10.7 percent as acknowledged by the Bank Of Ghana and had a total paid up capital including income surplus of GHC 422,100,000.
They added that as at the end of July, 2017, Unibank had 400,000 accounts and 54 branches spread throughout the country and employed about 2000 people including outsourced staff.
According to the writ, in September, 2017, the Bank Of Ghana in its review on the state of banks in Ghana recognized that Unibank was one of the three banks which would be able to meet new minimum capital requirements set by the Defendant for banks in Ghana of paid up capital of GHC 400,000,000 by December, 2018, once their respective income surplus accounts were capitalized.
The Plaintiffs stated that based on an August 2017 Examination Plan of the Banking Supervision Department of the Bank Of Ghana for Unibank, officials of the said department visited the premises of Unibank for an audit of the books of the bank and afterwards claimed to the management of Unibank that the bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio had gone down from 10.7 percent to 8.24 percent.
According to the Plaintiffs, while Unibank was awaiting the complete report on their audit, another team of inspectors visited Unibank and purported to audit and further downgrade the same credit facilities on which provisions had been made as reflected in their earlier reduction of the Capital Adequacy Ratio of Unibank to 8.24 percent.
The Bank of Ghana, according to the Plaintiffs, purported to reduce the Capital Adequacy Ratio again from 8.24 percent to 4.8 percent as at September 2017.
The writ stated that from August 2017, through to the end of the year, further visits were made by officials of the Bank of Ghana to Unibank outside the 2017 Examination Plan of the Banking Supervision Department of the Central Bank, purporting again to audit the same accounts of Unibank.
It is the Plaintiffs’ case that after each visit, management of Unibank was informed of further downgrading of the financial position of Unibank such that by November 2017, the Capital Adequacy Ratio of the bank was claimed to have gone negative.
It is the view of the Plaintiffs that the purported audits and downgrading of credit facilities on the books of Unibank by the Central Bank, were carried out unlawfully and in bad faith, with a view to putting the Bank out of business.
Dr. Duffuor and the Integrated Properties Limited, among others, have sought for a relief for an order of injunction, restraining the Bank of Ghana from expropriating Unibank by its purported vesting of ‘good assets and liabilities’ of Unibank in Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited and the revocation of the license of Unibank.
Source: GhanaJustice/F.Kyeremateng
