After ‘caving in’ hibernation for a long while and taking a total break from politics, a picture of Chief Executive Officer of Groupe Ndoum Companies, Dr. Papa Kwesi Ndoum looking all old with a grey-bearded face has surfaced on social media.

The astute businessman who always appeared in public with his beard nicely shaved with little facial hair is now captured with ‘unkempt’ hair all over his face.

Although unclear what necessitated such a look, social media users are suggesting it could be as a result of the numerous challenges he had been through these past few years.

Below are some of the few issues:

Financial Challenges

With over 30 years of existence, The Bank of Ghana earlier in 2019 closed down the Groupe Ndoum (GN bank) and other micro finances for their inability to meet the minimum capital of GHC400 million.
The decision affected more than 3,000 employees at GN Bank who lost their jobs due to shut-down.

Gold Coast Fund Management, another member of Groupe Nduom, also struggled just like defunct GN Bank, which was downgraded to a Savings and Loans before its license was finally withdrawn by the Bank of Ghana.

Customers of the defunct Gold Coast Securities Limited have since demonstrated for their locked up funds amidst several street protests, lawsuits, and so on.

Health crisis

In August 2020, the Groupe Nduom President was reported to have said the revocation of the license of his financial institution has caused the health of many people, including himself to deteriorate.

Describing how he felt when the incident happened, Dr. Ndoum described that particular day as “a day of infamy, treachery, and robbery of the rights and assets of indigenous Ghanaian entrepreneurship”.

Take a look at the picture below