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The Minority in Parliament has opposed the government’s proposal to either dissolve the National Investment Bank (NIB) or amalgamate it with the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).
In recent years, the government has been actively pursuing the merger of ADB and NIB to establish the National Development Bank, citing ongoing challenges faced by both institutions.
During a press briefing in Parliament, Isaac Adongo, the Minority Spokesperson on Finance, asserted that this initiative is, in fact, a diversionary tactic aimed at ultimately selling off the merged banks to individuals with close government ties, as part of what he characterizes as efforts to exert undue influence over state assets.
“It is clear that this is not about the interest of NIB. This is the last step towards passing through the back door to acquire NIB and ABD for themselves in a state capture,” he said on Thursday, September 28.
The Minority has called on the government to settle the outstanding debt owed to the bank. Additionally, they have recommended a set of measures aimed at ensuring the bank’s financial viability.
“Government should just restructure the balance sheet of NIB to swap all the NIB debt that it owes to government and give government equity. Government says it doesn’t have money to capitalize the bank, but it has given 500 million debt to NIB, it has given 800 million debt… The two will give you 1.3 billion. It is your money. You owe the bank. The money is already sitting there. Commit to saying that this is my contributing towards capitalisation so that we issue shares to you and move the money to equity,” he added.
Isaac Adongo emphasized that the potential collapse of NIB and its subsequent acquisition by ADB would result in the loss of approximately 800 jobs.
He also pointed out that contractors who were engaged by NIB for government projects are still awaiting payment from the Finance Ministry.
“As a result of that, NIB has incurred 1 billion on its load books, resulting from Ken Ofori-Atta’s refusal to pay, now you say NIB is week,” he said.
theindependentghana.com
