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Former Member of Parliament for Nanton Constituency, Hon. Murtala Ibrahim Mohammed says it simply does not make sense for the Akufo-Addo government to spend Ghc18 billion just to collapse banks.

According to him, if the Akufo-Addo government had extended that Ghc18 billion bailout to those banks as support, they would have been in a better position to transact business.

“How can you spend about Ghc18 billion to collapse banks? It simply does not make sense. You are spending Ghc18 billion to collapse banks. Does it make sense? Now the question is, that Ghc18 billion, if you had extended it to those banks, if you had given those Ghc18 billion as support to those banks would they have been in a better position that would be considered acceptable by government? My answer is yes,” he averred.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Radio Gold’s 'Alhaji and Alhaji' flagship program, Hon. Murtala Mohammed pointed out that "collapsing of the banks is not in circinatus to the challenges that we are confronted with in the banking sector as a government but if you had provided the facility and the money to those banks, the people, hundreds if not thousands who have lost their livelihood as a result of this insensitive decision, those people would have still been on their jobs.” 

Wondering why government will spend billions of Ghana cedis while it is still indebted to road contractors, the former NDC MP further alleged that over 7000 people have lost their jobs in the banking sector as a result of the reforms that led to the collapse of these indigenous banks. 

He also accused the Governor of the Central Bank, Dr Ernest Addison of dabbling in partisan politics instead of focusing on his priorities as BoG head.

"Multiply that 7000 by three, just say that they each have an average of two dependants, multiply the 7000 by 3, we are talking about 21,000 Ghanaians who indeed would have lost their jobs and after that we had other banks that were collapsed; we had businesses that were collapsed as a result of the collapse of those banks," he added. 

“The Governor of Bank of Ghana talks too much and it is true, when the Governor of Bank of Ghana sneezes, the entire banking sector and the entire economy catches cold and that is what happen. You have a Governor of Bank of Ghana who does politics than even operating as a Governor of a bank such as the Bank of Ghana; so that is the issue,” he chided.