Bank of Ghana Appoints Advisor for NIB

By Jonathan Donkor

The Bank of Ghana has appointed an advisor for the National Investment Bank to help management to improve the affairs of the bank.

Dr Ernest Addison, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, speaking at a press conference, said the advisor would hold office until otherwise advised by the Bank of Ghana.

"The advisor will furnish the BoG with a status report on the bank in three months and as frequently as the BoG may require," he said.

The Governor also announced the revocation of the licences of Premium Bank and Heritage Bank.

On the update of the recapitalisation exercise, Dr Addison said 23 banks had met the minimum capital requirement of ¢400 million.

"Sixteen out of the 23 banks have met the new minimum paid-up capital requirement of GH¢400 million mainly through capitalisation of income surplus and a fresh capital injection."

He said the Bank of Ghana had approved three applications for mergers. Consequently, First Atlantic Merchant Bank Limited and Energy Commercial Bank had merged Omni Bank and Bank Sahel Sahara had also merged, as well as First National Bank and GHL Bank.

"The three resulting banks out of these mergers have all met the new minimum capital requirement," he said.

Dr Addision said some private pension funds in Ghana had also injected fresh equity capital in five indigenous banks through a special purpose holding company named the Ghana Amalgamated Trust Limited (GAT).

In addition to the state-owned banks (ADB, NIB) benefiting from the GAT scheme, the other beneficiary banks (the merged Omni/Bank Sahel Sahara, Universal Merchant Bank, and Prudential Bank) were selected by GAT on the basis of their solvent status and good corporate governance.

The BoG on September 11, 2017 issued the Minimum Capital Directive by which all universal banks were required to increase their minimum paid-up capital to GH?400 million by 31st December 2018.

Banks were required to comply with the new minimum paid-up capital requirement through a fresh capital injection, capitalisation of income surplus, or a combination of fresh capital injection and capitalisation of income surplus.

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