NIB MD Zoom-managed bank from Canada for a year – Adongo claims

The Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, has bemoaned the lack of proper supervision for the National Investment Bank, an act that has plunged the bank into a dire financial crisis.

One such occurrence he listed was the absence of the Managing Director of the Bank, Samuel Sarpong, for over a year.

The Deputy Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament said the MD was managing the bank via Zoom from Canada.

“We haven’t given NIB the kind of attention that it deserves given that it has been in crisis… the Managing Director sat in Canada and zoom-managed NIB for almost a year. How can we be serious about that?

“A bank that requires arm holding, proper nurturing, the Managing Director sat in Canada for one year and what he was doing was Zoom managing that bank. Even very good performing banks cannot be managed by Zoom for one year so clearly there are issues,” he said on JoyFm.

Earlier reports had indicated that the governemnt was making moves to hand over the operations of NIB to the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).

However, the minority has vehemently stood against the merger while claiming that this may lead to loss of jobs among other issues.

Isaac Adongo said going through with the merger without parliament’s approval will be unconstitutional.

“I want to tell you that the bank itself was not established by the Companies Act, it was established by a National Investment Bank Act 612, and that Act is very clear under Section 22 under liquidation proceedings that nobody can liquidate or take any action that will ultimately lead to the demise of NIB unless it comes back to parliament for parliament to pass a law giving direction as to how that process should be pursued.

“So, there’s clearly a legal mandate, and that legal mandate rests with the people who set up NIB and it is the parliament of Ghana. So, we don’t expect anything other than a poor regulation action by the Central Bank under Act 930 either to bring it under administration, to revoke the license, or to place it under receivership as provided because they have a license from the Bank of Ghana,” he said.

He explained further: “But it’s quite clear that’s not the action the Bank of Ghana wants to take, it is not the action the government is interested in, the only action left now is to come under Act 612 and particularly under Section 22 of the Act.”