The National Investment Bank (NIB) will either be dissolved or merged with the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), according to the government’s plans, which have been met with opposition from the minority in parliament.
Due to the struggles of the two banks, the government has been working for years to merge ADB and NIB to form the National Development Bank.
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Isaac Adongo, the Minority Spokesperson on Finance, claimed in a press conference in Accra that this plan is merely a smokescreen to sell the two banks after their merger to friends of the government as part of State capture efforts.
“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.
The Minority has urged the government to settle the bank’s debt as well as prescribed additional actions that will ensure its 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.”
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According to Isaac Adongo, the impending collapse and ADB’s subsequent acquisition will result in the loss of about 800 jobs.
The MP also stated that the Finance Ministry has not yet paid contractors hired by NIB to work on government projects.
