Minority in Parliament rejects NIB – ADB merger initiated by the government

Minority in Parliament rejects NIB – ADB merger initiated by the government.

They registered their opposition to the government’s plans to either collapse the National Investment Bank (NIB) or merge it with the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).

The government has been working over the years to merge ADB and NIB to create the National Development Bank due to the struggles of the two banks.

Addressing journalists in Parliament, Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Isaac Adongo, alleged that this plan  was merely a smokescreen to sell off the two banks after their merger to government cronies as part of State capture efforts.

“It is clear that this is not about the interest of NIB. This is the last step towards passing through the back door to acquire NIB and ABD for themselves in a state capture,” he said on Thursday, September 28, 2023

The Minority therefore asked the government to pay the debt owed to the bank and further proscribed measures that will make it viable.

“Government should just restructure the balance sheet of NIB to swap all the NIB debt that it owes to government and give government equity. Government says it doesn’t have money to capitalize the bank, but it has given 500 million debt to NIB, it has given 800 million debt… The two will give you 1.3 billion. It is your money. You owe the bank. The money is already sitting there. Commit to saying that this is my contributing towards capitalisation so that we issue shares to you and move the money to equity.

Isaac Adongo said the move by the imminent collapse and subsequent acquisition by ADB will lead to the loss of about 800 jobs.

The MP further indicated that contractors NIB engaged to work on government projects were  yet to be paid by the Finance Ministry.

“As a result of that, NIB has incurred 1 billion on its load books, resulting from Ken Ofori-Atta’s refusal to pay, now you say NIB is week.”

“The considered actions of BoG and the government in respect of NIB only add one more puzzle to their technical ineptitude. Unless there is an ulterior motive that I may not be aware of or perhaps something taught to only a group of people in Yale and Harvard Business Schools.

The complexities often introduced into these simple and obviously common- sense finance decisions are mind-boggling. It looks to many that the government and BoG are deliberately making things look more complex than they actually are so they can confuse the average Ghanaian and then loot in the process.

“Let’s take a look at these scenarios: ADB is owned by the state through BOG (64%,) GoG (21%), and GAT (11%) making it a total of 96% ADB with the remaining 4% owned by residual retail investors.

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The same state owns NIB. As shareholders of NIB you are being asked to bring more money to recapitalise your bank (NIB) but you say you don’t have money to recapitalise it but you turn around to tell one of your banks, ADB, to come and buy your other Bank NIB. Effectively, you are the one using your own money to buy a bank that you already own anyway.

So, you collect your own money as consideration for sale of your own bank to yourself and wake up the next morning pretending you no longer own the bank. This needless complexity is a senseless smokescreen for thievery by Government and BoG acting together.”

Source: Ghana/Today.com.gh/Todaynewspaper/Yaw Takyi