Before things turned sour between them, the former Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, and the founder of the now-defunct UT Bank, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, shared a strong and positive relationship.
This bond was evident in Ofori-Atta’s book, “Leadership, Entrepreneur and Values,” where he lauded Amoabeng as one of Africa’s great entrepreneurs and a stalwart in the banking sector.
“In Africa, you can now talk of super entrepreneurs such as Mo Ibrahim, Dangote, and Tokyo, while we have an impressive critical mass of younger entrepreneurs such as Ali Mufuruki of Tanzania; Isaac Shongwe of South Africa; Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede of Nigeria; Prince Kofi Amoabeng of Ghana; Alaone of Morocco; Joseph of Kenya; Rodriguez in Mozambique; and many of my senior banking colleagues from Nigeria,” Ofori-Atta wrote.
However, their cordial relationship began to sour when the former finance minister initiated a banking sector clean-up exercise in 2017.
Despite efforts to stabilise UT Bank and ensure it met its financial obligations, the bank ultimately had to shut down.
It would be recalled that in August 2017, the Bank of Ghana revoked the licenses of two commercial banks, UT Bank, and Capital Bank.
This decision was driven by the banks’ inability to resolve their negative capital adequacy positions, which had persisted for some time.
According to the Central Bank, both banks were deeply insolvent, with liabilities exceeding their assets, leaving them unable to meet their obligations as they fell due.
The Bank of Ghana stated that despite repeated agreements with the two banks to implement action plans addressing these significant shortfalls, the owners and managers failed to raise the necessary capital to resolve the insolvency.
Founder of the defunct UT Bank, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, in his new book has shared the letter he received from the central bank on the revocation of license of his bank.
He stated that prior to the revocation, his outfit had a very cordial relationship with the central bank and that the Bank of Ghana had been very supportive of all their efforts to secure an investor to recapitalise UT Bank.
Amoabeng said he was taken aback when his bank’s license was revoked.
Read this portion of Ofori-Atta’s book below:
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
