TTB Sale Controversy Rages On

The Trust Bank head office

An Accra-based civil society organisation yesterday dared Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to provide Ghanaians with adequate information on the performance of all the 12 banks it has stake in.

The Coalition for the Protection of Individual Liberties and Constitutional Rights (COPCOR), which made the call at a press conference in Accra, wants the Trust to provide adequate information on each of the banks regarding their dividend payment policies, average Return On Equity (ROE) and average return on assets (ROA) for the past 10 years.

This, it believes, will be the best way by which Ghanaians will better understand the motives behind the hastily decision by SSNIT to sell The Trust Bank to Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI).

SSNIT has stakes in the following banks: Cal Bank, Ecobank Ghana, Ghana Commercial Bank, HFC Bank, SG-SSB and Standard Chartered Bank (all listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange) as well as Fidelity Bank, First Atlantic Merchant Bank, Ghana International Bank, Merchant Bank Ghana, Prudential Bank and The Trust Bank.

The Co-ordinator of the group, Gearge Agbenyikey Jnr, who addressed the press at the confab, said checks made by his outfit at the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) revealed that TTB is one of the very few companies that have consistently improved their performance since the inception of the Ghana Club 100 Awards.

The bank, according to the group, occupied the 71st position during the 1998 awards, then progressed to the 51st position in 2000. In subsequent awards, TTB moved to 27th, 14th, 12th, 8th, and 7th   position. It placed 5th at the just-ended Ghana club 100 awards ceremony held in Accra.

'We wish to ask SSNIT once more to give Ghanaians the main reasons why an entity such as TTB should be sold to a foreign bank that has yet to equal such enviable achievements in the history of the club 100 rankings,' Mr Agbenyikey asked.

He called on the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to wake up and promote the cause of Ghanaian workers.

'Our pension funds are at stake and you should not allow a few individuals to sell off a well-performing entity like TTB to any foreign institution just to fulfill their greedy interests,' Mr Agbenyikey noted.

He said his group will not sit unconcerned and watch individuals to engage in fraudulent deals such as the questionable sale of TTB that will make them fat.

He commented: 'We demand an immediate and swift intervention by government to stop this deal; otherwise we will be compelled to go public with names of some of the individuals behind this deal.'

SSNIT recently justified its approval for the merger of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and the Trust Bank.

The Corporate Affairs Manager of SSNIT, Eva Amegashie, explained that the move will rather increase SSNIT's income base and will be of immense benefit to the country.

'This transaction will help SSNIT make sure that the pension scheme is sustainable and that every month we get steady flow of months to pay about 110,000 pensioners we have on a payroll. Ecobank Ghana Limited is a Ghanaian bank so when people say that we are selling it to a foreign bank, it is not true,' she said.

But Mr Agbenyikey Jnr said: 'Ecobank Transnational Incorporated is headquartered in Togo, and has Ecobank Ghana as its Ghanaian subsidiary so it remains a foreign bank and not a local bank as Ms Amegashie would want Ghanaians to believe.'

By Felix Dela Klutse