The Majority in Parliament has criticised the Minority for politicizing the recapitalization of the National Investment Bank (NIB) rather than investigating to know the facts pertaining to the oxygen the bank needs to survive.
According to the group, the NIB is not up for sale just as the Minority has been peddling. The clarification follows a caution from the Minority to the government through its Ranking Member on the Finance Committee in Parliament, Isaac Adongo, against any move to collapse the bank, charging government to rather capitalize it given the liquidity challenges.
Addressing the media Wednesday, October 25, 2023, Majority Chief Whip Frank Annoh-Dompreh, rejected the assertions of the Minority calling them out to come and prove if they had anything to substantiate their claims.
“I’m challenging the Minority that if they have a better proof in terms of the management of the bank, and what the board has done, if they have done anything wrong they should come out and put it across. They should stop making these sweeping arguments and allegations which does not end up to help anybody,” he stated.
He agreed to the fact that the bank needs to be recapitalised and explained Ken Ofori-Atta’s role in cushioning the it to keep it in motion.
“One of the things that all of us need to help is that the bank needs recapitalization because if you look at their own correspondence, when Finance Minister led the charge and sovereign guarantee was garnered through parliament and opportunity was given Ghana amalgamated trust to lead the way to raise the necessary oxygen and the recapitalisation effort, the finance minister led the effort to raise an amount of GHC800million which was given to nib. They added additional 57 million to making GHC857million which was pushed into the bank’s activities and operations to soar up its profits and activities,” he explained.
Mr. Annoh-Dompreh went ahead to explain why the bank’s demand for extra support is justifiable.
“It still stands to reason that because of the challenges in the financial factor, the bank is still demanding some recapitalization, some more efforts, some more oxygen to be given to them so they will be able to work to remain relevant in our industrial drive,” he noted.
He bemoaned the politicization of the issue by the Minority.
“I’m not happy about the attitude of our colleagues in the Minority. It is not everything that we play politics with. When the financial sector had challenges and some banks had to be collapsed, the effect affected the economy so the least they could have done was to investigate this matter.”
