Ghana: the confused nation!

Some Ghanaians are confused in times of extreme hardship. Let us outsiders help them with obvious facts.

Ibrahim Mahama, younger brother of former President John Dramani Mahama, took a loan from Merchant Bank unable/unwilling to pay it back. In efficient working societies companies unable to pay their expenditures have to file for bankruptcy failing to do so timely leads to a potential jail sentence.

Fortis Limited was established in 2014 with Ibrahim Mahama as one main shareholder. This company did not meet the Bank of Ghana criteria to take over the Merchant Bank in terms of expertise and required own capital (USD 6 Mio. instead of USD 20 Mio., both SA Rand Bank in the offering process were able to provide). After the Parliament was called back from vacation and Fortis Limited was entitled to take over collapsed Merchant Bank.

When in March 2014 then President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, at a live broadcast press conference replied to a journalist:" I as the President of a democratic country cannot intervene in the process of protests in the Merchant Bank case as someone has already taken the matter to court!" he has confused the nation on two accounts as 1.) he knew about the issue long before the press conference and 2.) could have added on behave of the nation another court case.

In 2015 UT-Bank collapsed due to e.g. that three big borrowers did not pay back their loans taken, among them Engineers & Partner owned by Ibrahim Mahama, the company not having filed for administration.

He has now opened a cement factory for USD 100 Mio. and Ghanaians praise him for cement Made in Ghana. For critical observers, it raises the query station which bank is next in line potentially to collapse as in few other cases this happened to other companies in the past too.

Will Ghanaians ever learn and wise up in light of the #Fixthecountry now campaign and row over "Fix yourself" calls?