It has emerged that there was a clandestine scheme by some senior management members of Bank of Ghana (BoG) to frustrate Ghanaians who showed extensive interest in the takeover of the ailing International Commercial Bank (ICB).

Reports say these influential individuals led by BoG’s Governor, Dr Henry Kofi Wampah, fervently worked for their associates at the Nigerian based First National Bank (FNB) as against the interest of Ghanaian investors.

“Some Ghanaian investors showed serious interest in the purchase of the bank (ICB), but it appears some individuals at the top were rather interested in off loading the shares to the Nigerians rather than the Ghanaians,” a senior management member told this reporter in a private discussion.

Further enquiries revealed that such entrenched positions, which were heavily supported by some high-ranking government officials, and culminated into the selling of national assets, including The Trust Bank (TTB) to ECOBANK, Merchant Bank to Rand Bank.

The controversies, this reporter gathered, has created sharp divisions among management members but Dr Wampah’s bloc remained adamant and went ahead to close the deal.

Speaking exclusively to this reporter on the raging controversy over sale, the Member of Parliament for Menhyia South Constituency dared BoG officials to provide what he described as adequate information on ICB regarding dividend payment policies, average Return On Equity (ROE) and average return on assets (ROA) over the years.

Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, otherwise known as “Napo” also questioned the evaluation process before the supposed approval took place, asking was BoG aware of any competing local interest.

This, Napo, believes, will be the best way by which Ghanaians will better understand the motives behind the hastily decision by Dr Wampah and his protégé at the Central Bank to sheepishly offload the bank to the Nigerians. In the estimation of the lawmaker, the interest of Ghanaians would have been better served if Ghanaians were offered the “first option” to purchase the property rather than a few individuals satisfying their bloated egos by forcefully pushing through the deal in favor of their cronies.

Another controversy has to do with a 15th August, 2013 letter written by the Ghana Mission signed by the acting Head of the Mission, M.F. Inusah, which revealed that Tun Daim (the owner of ICB) had "expressed its desire to sustain the good relations he developed with Ghana over the years and for that matter has no objection to divest the West Africa block of ICB to Jospong Group of Companies provided that the offer price remain the same".

On 29th of August, 2013, the Chief of Staff at the Presidency, Prosper D.K. Bani, wrote to the Governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr. Kofi Wampah, to the effect that "Government is committed to ensuring that the interests of Ghanaian companies are seriously considered in the acquisition of the International Commercial Bank (Ghana) Limited (ICB).

The Bank of Ghana is therefore requested to be guided by this position in handling all transactions on the acquisition of the ICB".

The efforts of the Ghana Mission in Kuala Lumpor and the letter of the Chief of Staff apparently had no effect on the powers-that-be at the Bank of Ghana as they took cover under the pretext that the owner of ICB, Tun Daim (Zainuddin) had earlier on 26th February, 2013, signed an agreement for the sale of all the ICB Banks in West Africa including Ghana, to the First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) and had subsequently in March, 2013, applied to BoG as the regulatory authority for the statutory, requisite approval.

Prior to the approval of the transaction, Imani-Ghana - a policy think tank based in Ghana also alleged that the UK-based Financial Times reported on 19th September, 2013 that the FBN had allegedly been involved in "insider trading" in the acquisition of assets of Ecobank Transnational (ETI).

The thrust of the "Imani Alert" was whether or not any serious due diligence was conducted by BoG on the credentials of the Nigerian Bank (FBN) prior to the approval of the transaction against the backdrop of UK-based Financial Times' 19th September, 2013 report that the FBN had allegedly been involved in "insider trading" in the acquisition of assets of Ecobank Transnational (ETI).

In spite of the myriad controversy FNB and its officials are involved in, reports suggest BoG officials reportedly ignored these cautions and approved the sale.