Accra, July 19, GNA - The Socialist Forum of Ghana (SFG), a pressure group, has said that the sale of government's 48 per cent shares in Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to a South African Bank, Stanbic, would be detrimental to the economy as well as the agricultural sector.

According to the group, the take-over by Stanbic would mean that it would take control over the inflow of money accrued from Western Union Money Transfer, which was estimated at between 350 and 400 million US dollars annually.

In a press release issued on Thursday in Accra, the group said the process of offloading the shares was laden with "fraud and subterfuge". The group said the sale or offloading of Bank of Ghana's shares to Stanbic without open market operations and the option of having local private shareholders, as was done in the case of Ghana Commercial Bank, deprived the country of its rights to maximise profits and its sovereignty.

The group said ADB, under the control of Stanbic, would lose all its profit to foreign investors.

According to the group, agriculture was of a strategic security importance to the economy and its financing and development could not be placed in the hands of foreigners whose sole aim was to maximise profit. The group said since the inception of Stanbic in Ghana, its main focus had been on business and not agriculture.

According to the Socialists Forum, ADB had performed creditably and met its obligations under the provisions of the agricultural development credit and Corpoate Bank Act of 1965 and also initiated viable projects in the Brong Ahafo, Ashanti and the Eastern Regions. "There is no guarantee that if Stanbic should take-over, these projects would continue giving its focus on industry and commerce", the statement read.