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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been chastised for choosing a ‘foreign’ bank over an indigenous one.

Former Central Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) does not understand why the Akufo-Addo led administration will choose to save Sahel Sahara bank; a foreign company with a merger and rather downgrade GN Bank belonging to Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom to a savings and loan company.

Allotey Jacobs who was contributing to a panel discussion on Wednesday’s edition of Peace FM's morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, said “the fact that they have merged is scratch my back, make I scratch your back . . . is it because he was once a presidential candidate so his bank has to be collapsed. His bank was downgraded because of envy . . . Is it because he belongs to another political party?” he queried.

Background

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has given final approval for the merger of Omni Bank, owned by Dr Joseph Siaw Agyepong and his wife with Sahel Sahara Bank owned by 13 Sahelian countries; into one entity to be known as Omni-BSIC Bank Ghana Limited.

The merging of these two banks was to create a stronger bank that can meet the BoG’s new minimum capital requirement of GHS400 million by a deadline of December, 2018.

GN bank was however not able to meet the minimum capital requirement and was downgraded to a savings and loan company.