Bawumia’s prediction of banks collapse was classified – Minority

The Minority in Parliament has said Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia revealed classified information to the public when warned in 2016 that eight banks in Ghana risked collapse due to the continuous hikes of bad loans on their books and the fragile economy.

The then running mate of the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party’s warning is back in the public mind after the collapse of UT Bank and Capital Bank and their takeover by GCB Bank.

He said these eight banks were identified to exhibit significant weaknesses with capital adequacy ratios of below 10 percent and some below 5 percent and nearing collapse so it is a real problem.

Dr. Bawumia also made reference to the Bank of Ghana’s first financial stability report for 2016, which revealed that bad loans on the books of commercial banks in the country increased by 14.9 percent to GHc 4.52 billion in 2015 against the GHc 2.72 billion recorded in 2014.

Bawumia playing politics
At a press conference on Tuesday, the Minority’s Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, Cassiel Ato Forson, said Dr. Bawumia, during his September 2016 lecture on the state of Ghana’s economy, “took advantage of the political landscape to disseminate information that is supposed to be classified.”

Mr. Ato Forson, who was a deputy Finance Minister at the time, said the Mahama government contracted a transaction advisor to work with some of these banks and produce a report.

Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, Cassiel Ato Forson

“It [the report] was released to the government, or Bank of Ghana, at the time, around July [2016]. Part of it was leaked and the then-Running Mate decided to take political advantage and then announce it. I thought it was overly unfair.”

Mr. Ato Forson revealed further that the report containing the “classified” information on the eight banks was a draft one but challenged the vice president to now reveal the identity of the banks said to be on the brink of collapse.

“I Ato Forson, I am asking him, since he is now the chairman of the economic management team, to inform this Republic how many banks are threatened under his stewardship.”

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By: Sixtus Dong Ullo/Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana