Black Stars To Lose Headline Sponsor As uniBank Is Declared Insolvent

Unibank's sponsorship deal with Black Stars hangs by a thread after the indigenous bank was declared insolvent by the Bank of Ghana on Tuesday.

In November 2016, Unibank renewed its partnership with the Ghana FA by signing a three-year deal worth US$ 1.2m.

The Bank of Ghana has appointed an audit firm KPMG as Official Administrator aimed at saving UniBank from imminent collapse.

Unibank among other things persistently maintained a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) below zero (currently negative 24%), making it technically insolvent.

It contravenes section 29 of Act 930 which requires a minimum CAR of 10% to be maintained at all times.

Also, they persistently suffered liquidity shortfalls and consistently breached its cash reserve requirement.

As a result, UniBank has relied extensively on liquidity support (over GHS 2.2 billion) from the Bank of Ghana over the past two years to meet its recurring liabilities.

Among other things, a key shareholder of the bank managed to obtain liquidity support from the Bank of Ghana using third-party banks as its agents.

The Bank of Ghana's exposure to the bank was therefore underestimated by nearly GHS 400 million, as this amount was not reflected in its books.