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A former vice-president of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) and private legal practitioner, Kwame Jantuah, has criticised President Nana Akufo-Addo and Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta for their silence on the rot that led to the collapse of some local banks in Ghana.

According to Mr Jantuah, the collapse of local banks has the potential to distabilise the economy, yet officialdom is not assuring the public of confidence in the financial sector.

Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited was recently formed by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) when it fused together five struggling local banks, including The Beige Bank, Sovereign Bank, The RoyaL Bank, uniBank and The Construction Bank.

Prior to this, Capital Bank and UT Bank had been taken over by the central bank. The central bank has given all banks up to the end of 2018 to meet the new minimum capital requirement of GHS400 million.

Mr Jantuah, who was a guest on Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Thursday, 9 August 2018, told sit-in host Benjamin Akakpo that: “It is not only a Bank of Ghana thing; I expect those institutions that need to talk, to talk. The same way the president came to make a statement about the Americans coming here to set up an army base, I expect him to make a statement to address Ghanaians because the financial hub of the economy is based on Finance.

“If this is happening, he has the responsibility to say something. I was even expecting the Minister of Finance to say something. Have we heard any of them talking, no! Why? Maybe they don’t care because I can’t understand it? The ordinary Ghanaian putting his money in a bank and those who have a responsibility who have been voted into power are quiet? I don’t understand it,” he stated.

Mr Jantuah is of the view that investor confidence has been adversely affected, adding that everything must be done to ensure high confidence in the banking system.

“If the confidence is not high, the Makola woman will keep her money under her bed,” he said.

He was concerned that “the ordinary Ghanaian is the one who suffers” at the end of the day because it is taxpayers’ money that is used to support the banks.