An economist, Kwame Pianim, has stated that the Ghana Association of Bankers faulted because they did not consult shareholders when making the decision to accept the government’s offer for the domestic debt exchange programme.

According to him, he knows the shareholders were not consulted about the government’s offer because he as a shareholder did not receive any consultation.

After several oppositions to the government’s proposal for restructuring domestic bonds, the Ghana Bankers Association accepted the offer, asking their members to sign up.

“…From the uncertainty surrounding the programme, GAB recommends that all banks must stay any further movement on the exchange until our demands have been met. However, in the event that a bank may have to move forward to exchange, the MD/CEO must inform the CEO of GAB directly of the decision,” a letter from the Ghana Bankers Association in January 2023 said.

However, Pianim noted that the decision to sign up without consultation has made certain individuals unhappy.

“The Bankers Association thought they had the mandate to negotiate, where did they learn their governance from? They are not shareholders of any bank, they should have said this discussion has to go to the shareholders, to the directors of the banks, we need 21 days to summon shareholders to come.

“I am a shareholder of one of the banks but they didn’t consult me, people are angry with them,” he was quoted by 3news.com.

He also added that he together with other economists were not in favour of the domestic debt exchange programme but their counsel was ignored by the President.

“I put together Dr Paul Acquah, myself, Ishmael Yamson, Sam Jonah, Ernest Aryitey from Bank of Ghana, Frank Adu , Mawuli Ababio and Togbe Afede, we sat for four days and crafted a memorandum which I sent to the president, copied the Vice President and the Finance Minister that this is the wrong way to go. We just finished cleaning up the banking sector so it doesn’t make sense to give a haircut to the banks to impair their capital adequacy ratio, some of them made the banks insolvent.

“But we were ignored completely, I am one of the foundation members of the NPP so if I could not get the ear, how do you expect the technician to get the ear of the president?” he questioned.

SSD/NOQ


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