Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Johnson Asiama has said that the central bank is waiting on the parties involved in the acquisition of shares in Société Générale to reach an agreement.
Dr Asiama explained that the BoG is not a party to the sale.
The role of the Bank of Ghana is to ensure that there is due diligence and that the sale meets its requirements. Following this, the central bank will then issue a no-objection, he said.
When asked to provide an update on the sale of the shares during the 124th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) press conference in Accra on Friday, May 24, Dr Asiama said, “Yes, at the last MPC, I made a point that the sale was on. The sale is still on as far as we are concerned. As a central bank, we are not parties to the sale; ours is to ensure that the is due diligence and that the parties that agreed on the sale meet our requirements.
“So we are just waiting when the parties to the sale to reach an agreement, they will write to us and we will do the necessary due diligence, we will check everything we need to check and and then issue our no objection. So that exercise is still ongoing, we haven’t heard anything since the last MPC when we touched on this.”
Earlier while commenting on this issue at the 123rd MPC press conference on Friday March 28, Dr Asiama assured that the BoG was ensuring the prospective buyers meet the fit and proper requirements.
He “The sale of shares in Société Générale is ongoing, a number of prospective buyers have touched base with us. But as you know, we are central bank regulators, ours is to issue a no objection, ours is to ensure that the prospective buyer meets the fit and proper requirements. And so we await negotiations on their part. When it is included, we will then look at the aspect that we have to look at.
On Thursday, May 9, 2024, the Management of Société Générale Ghana said in a statement that the Société Générale Group had initiated a strategic review.
“Societe Generale Ghana has been informed that Societe Generale Group, which holds 60.22% of Societe Generale Ghana, has initiated a strategic review. If a concrete development were to be decided, a subsequent communication will be made at the appropriate time according to applicable legislation,” the statement said.
On Wednesday, May 8, the Managing Director of Societe Generale Ghana, Hakim Ouzzani, described the media reports that the bank was exiting Ghana as rumors. Mr. Ouzzani said that the report did not come from the bank.
He assured that the bank remainEed committed to its group strategy to strengthen its capital base since 2023.
“Some rumours have indeed taken root regarding SG Ghana. But it’s important to mention to all our stakeholders and our shareholders that the news item being circulated in the media was not issued by the group nor by SG Ghana”, he said while speaking at the 44th Annual General Meeting of Societe Generale Ghana in Accra. We don’t want to comment further,” he added.
It had been reported that after nearly 20 years of operations in Ghana, the French bank had decided to withdraw from Ghana.
The post Sale of Société Générale: We’re waiting on the parties to reach an agreement – BoG Governor first appeared on 3News.
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