The Minority in Parliament has threatened to take legal action against the government over attempts to finalise the takeover between the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and the National Investment Bank (NIB).
The caucus urged the government to prevent the bank’s potential liquidation by undertaking a significant restructuring of the ailing NIB.
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.
Recent reports have indicated the possibility of ADB acquiring NIB, which currently carries liabilities exceeding GH¢2 billion.
The Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, accused the government of having an ulterior motive in the liquidation of NIB.
“It doesn’t make sense, introducing these complications in a very simple, obvious, and common-sense finance decision can only be for an ulterior motive. We will use Parliament, we will use the court of Ghana, we will use every legitimate means to protect the livelihoods of our people,” Adongo asserted.
The Bolgatanga Central MP raised concerns about the joblessness that will be created if the government succeeds with the liquidation process.
“The government is playing a very funny game now. They said they want ADB to buy NIB. If you are going to buy NIB, it means it doesn’t have money, somebody has to give ADB the money. ADB doesn’t meet the minimal adequacy requirement. ADB itself is suffering from diabetes, now you want to combine asthma with it and produce what kind of human being? You don’t add a bad bank to a bad bank, it’s never done. A good bank can buy a bad bank and use its strength to improve that bank. But the conversation is that ADB itself must be treated for its own individual illness.”
“And NIB must be created for its own individual illness. If you do that, they will be so healthy. They won’t even be interested in coming together. In a country that is struggling to retain NABCo jobs, do you want to lay people off from sustainable jobs? Hell no. In the end, we will be worse off. We saw what happened the last time,” he added.
Meanwhile, a banking consultant, Dr Richmond Atuahene, commenting on the recent development, has condemned the proposed merger of the NIB and ADB.
Speaking in an interview on Thursday, September 28, Dr Atuahene stated that it was not the right call.
“I don’t think merging NIB and ADB is solving any problem. It is not a solution at all,” he said.
He contends that the government should not rush on the matter but take its time to conduct a diagnostic study of the two banks first.