Chairman of Groupe Nduom, and owner of now-defunct GN Bank, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, says they are looking forward to an assurance by the Bank of Ghana (BoG), to help them retrieve monies owed them by government to strengthen their finances, following the downgrade of their GN Bank to a Savings and Loans Company.
According to him, the bank would have been strengthened financially if the Government paid all the monies owed the bank.
Dr. Nduom also disclosed that there were rife discussions between BoG and GN Bank to ensure the payment of all the monies Government owed the bank in order for the bank to meet its liquidity targets, but all such discussions failed to materialize.
Speaking on the turn of events on social media, Dr. Nduom, however, refused to state how much money Government owes his bank.
He was however of the view that the bank which is now a savings and loans company should be able to operate successfully if government pays all the monies owed them.
“We have some money with the Government of Ghana and that money was coming rather slowly and it was not to argue with anyone, but we said if that is the case, we will rather wait for that money to come and if the money comes, we will be more strengthened than anything else. But what I’m even more interested in, is the Bank of Ghana knowing that we have some monies to collect from the Government of Ghana, saying that it will assist us to even collect some of the monies quickly so that we will have the liquidity that we need in order to operate successfully.”
GN Bank applied for the license of a savings and Loans Company after it was unable to meet the Minimum Capital requirement of 400 million cedis set by the Central Bank.
Groupe Nduom bank loses its banking license
The Bank of Ghana (BoG), thus approved a downgrade of GN Bank to a Savings and Loans company.
By this, GN has lost its banking license.
The Bank of Ghana made the announcement on Friday, January 4, 2019.
According to the Governor of the central bank, Dr. Ernest Addison, GN Bank had failed to meet the GHS 400 million minimum capital requirement by the 31st December 2018 deadline.
GN Bank was incorporated on May 30, 1997.
The bank has in recent times faced liquidity challenges and is unable to meet withdrawal demands of depositors.
Customer wins lawsuit against Gold Coast Securities over unpaid investment
The woes of Groupe Nduom are far from over as an angry customer of one of their subsidiaries, Gold Coast Securities, has won a lawsuit against the fund managers.
Gold Coast Securities, is expected to pay over GHc370,000 allegedly owed the customer, one Dr. Archibald Frederick McKenzie Badoe, who claimed the company has refused to give him back his investment.
EOCO begins probe into operations of Gold Coast Securities Fund managers
The Economic and Organized Crimes Unit [EOCO], in December 2018 began investigations into the operations of fund managers, Gold Coast Securities.
This was after complaints from clients that they were struggling to retrieve their investments.
A group calling itself Concerned Gold Coast Fund Management Customers petitioned the EOCO and the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate the company.
The group particularly demanded the immediate arrest of key persons in the company, including Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom.
But the company insisted that all was well and urged its clients to stop the panic withdrawals that were rampant at the time.
“No financial institution that invests funds on behalf of its customers in medium and long-term projects can survive if its customers showed up one day and demanded their funds be paid back all at the same time. The same rings true for our companies. So we will ask respectfully for our customers to remain and stay with us,” Dr. Nduom, President and Chairman of Groupe Nduom stated.
source: Citi Newsroom