National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Samuel Nartey George, has said the Akufo-Addo-led administration alone cannot be blamed for the problems in the banking sector in Ghana that led to the collapse of some seven local banks.

According to the Former Presidential staffer, it will be unreal and dishonest on his part, to suggest that all the problems in the banking sector started in 2017.

Mr Nartey George explained on TV3’s New Day Programme on Saturday, 1 September 2018 that the Bank of Ghana, from 2014, failed to perform its supervisory role, a situation he believes has resulted in the current problems in the banking sector.

He said, in relation to the 1,700 staff of the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited (CBG) who are about to lose their jobs: “…I am not going to put the blame solely on the shoulders of this government, I am trying to be a realist. I always held the view that the Bank of Ghana itself, has questions to answer; and when I say the Bank of Ghana, I speak about the institution, which spans from the previous NDC administration, because it will be unreal and dishonest on my part to suggest that all of these problems emerged in 2017, no.

“The Bank of Ghana has questions to answer from as far back as 2014”, Mr Nartey George stressed, adding: “For me, these are Ghanaians who have lost their jobs, they don’t care which party is in government. All they care about is being able to pay for their children’s school fees. These 1,700, some of them have children and school is going to resume, how do they pay their children’s school fees? I have always said that the Bank of Ghana itself is a candidate for consolidation because the same crimes or offences that these banks are guilty of – poor corporate governance structure – the Bank of Ghana is also guilty of.

“Why? The Bank of Ghana took GHS620 million as liquidity support and gave it to a bank without doing due diligence to ensure that there were proper corporate governance structures in there. The Bank of Ghana gave another bank GHS800 million. These banks are in this distress because they gave out facilities, depositors’ monies without ensuring that the loans were properly collateralised.

“You [BoG] are giving liquidity support, what due diligence did you, as a bank, do to find out that the money will also be protected? These are the issues that for me, we should talk about.”

The Bank of Ghana, recently fused uniBank with Sovereign Bank, The Royal Bank, The Beige Bank and The Construction Bank, to form a totally new local bank called Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG) Limited.