The Minority in Parliament has taken an exception to comments made by the Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, following his assertion that the opposition’s stance on the state of the National Investment Bank (NIB) is merely political.
At a Wednesday, October 25, 2023 press conference, Mr. Annoh-Dompreh had said a request by the Minority to the government to restructure the bank to avoid its collapse was political, saying the bank was not up for sale as held by the caucus.
He asked the group to support government’s intention of recapitalizing the bank rather than politicizing the issue.
According to Mr. Annoh-Dompreh, the bank’s demand for extra liquidity was not out of place considering the financial sector challenges despite an initial provision of GHC857 million to keep it in business.
“What the government should be encouraged and urged to do is to help in the recapitalization but not to run down the bank. So, our colleagues in the Minority should stop this politicization of all matters, especially matters related to the financial sector. If they don’t have the facts, they should just be patient, investigate, and get the facts before they come out,” the Majority Chief Whip had said Wednesday.
But reacting to the issue, Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, said what the Minority did was to proffer solutions to save the bank from liquidation which Mr. Annoh-Dompreh failed to do in his presentation.
He noted the issues relating to the bank is technical for Annoh-Dompreh to wade in with mere English.
“We want people who believe that they understand the issues, have command over the issues, and have something to offer on the table. We provided very concrete solutions to NIB. Throughout his (Annoh-Dompreh’s) conversation, he did not provide one solution. So, between us and him, who is politicizing the issue? He admits that since 2017, NIB has failed to publish audited financial reports required by law. That is the biggest red flag that anybody with the slightest knowledge of finance would be worried about, and if I were the MD of NIB, I would shut up. Annoh-Dompreh doesn’t understand the seriousness of this.”
“The NIB has outsourced its treasury function to a brokerage firm, in which they share a profit of 60% to the brokerage firm and 40% to NIB when NIB has a full-fledged treasury department headed by a General Manager…This is not an easy matter. This is a technical financial subject, and we shouldn’t be allowing people who just come and speak English to be discussing technical matters that are beyond them,” he said on Accra-based Citi FM.
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