[ 2019-01-05 ]

Bank of Ghana appoints advisors for NIB
Accra, Jan. 4, GNA – The Bank of Ghana has
appointed an advisor for the National Investment
Bank to help management to improve the affairs of
the bank.

Dr Ernest Addison, the Governor of the Bank of
Ghana, speaking at a press conference, said the
advisor would hold office until otherwise advised
by the Bank of Ghana.

The advisor will furnish the BoG with a status
report on the bank in three months and as
frequently as the BoG may require, he said.

The governor also announced the revocation of the
licenses of Premium Bank and Heritage Bank.

On the update of the recapitalisation exercise, Dr
Addison said 23 Banks had met the minimum capital
requirement of ¢400 million.

“Sixteen out of the 23 banks have met the
new minimum paid-up capital requirement of
GH¢400 million mainly through capitalisation of
income surplus and a fresh capital
injection.”

He said the Bank of Ghana had approved three
applications for mergers. Consequently, First
Atlantic Merchant Bank Limited and Energy
Commercial Bank had merged, Omni Bank and Bank
Sahel Sahara had also merged, as well as First
National Bank and GHL Bank.

“The three resulting banks out of these
mergers have all met the new minimum capital
requirement,” he said.

Dr Addision said some private pension funds in
Ghana had also injected fresh equity capital in
five indigenous banks through a special purpose
holding company named the Ghana Amalgamated Trust
Limited (GAT).

In addition to the state-owned banks (ADB, NIB)
benefiting from the GAT scheme, the other
beneficiary banks (the merged Omni/Bank Sahel
Sahara, Universal Merchant Bank, and Prudential
Bank) were selected by GAT on the basis of their
solvent status and good corporate governance.

The BoG on September 11, 2017 issued the Minimum
Capital Directive by which all universal banks
were required to increase their minimum paid-up
capital to GHC400 million by 31st December 2018.

Banks were required to comply with the new minimum
paid-up capital requirement through a fresh
capital injection, capitalisation of income
surplus, or a combination of fresh capital
injection and capitalisation of income surplus.

GNA

Source - GNA

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