Story: Atta Kwaku  Boadi

The Chairman of Groupe Nduom (GN), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom has appealed to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to reconsider its decision and allow his conglomerate to take over  all the buildings which used to house  over 300  branches of  GN Bank/Savings.

According to him, the buildings which GN Bank/Savings operated from before Bank of  Ghana (BoG)  withdrew its licence  did not belong to the bank. He explained that,   apart from the ones the  bank rented, the rest are owned by some of the entities of Groupe Nduom.

“The records are there at the Lands Commission, anybody can go there and verify,  so I don’t  understand why the government does not want us to have access to our own properties”, he quizzed?  

The business magnate made this observation while on the second phase of #BringBackGNBank national tour  in the northern part of Ghana.

In an exclusive interview with Yem Radio in Bolgatanga in the Upper East region on Tuesday, August 20, 2024  which was monitored by Today Newspaper , Dr  Nduom recounted how five years ago, the licence of GN Bank/Savings  was unlawfully revoked by BoG.

“This past week has been very difficult for me because it is exactly five years when the central bank withdrew the licence of GN Bank after  reclassifying it to GN Savings from universal bank.  I remember the meeting I  had with the Governor  of the central bank, Dr Ernest Addison who never gave me any reason to believe that  they were going to revoke our licence because he  knew our money was with COCOBOD where he is  still a board member and assured me that nothing would happen to our bank”,  Dr  Nduom further recounted.  

What the Groupe Nduom chairman did not understand was the government’s decision not to allow his outfit to take over their properties which he said, were deteriorating.

“ All our buildings are in poor state,  yet the government does not want us to take over and maintain them. All the places we have been to,  the buildings are in deplorable state which is a source of worry to me”, Dr Nduom lamented.

For example, he mentioned places like Wa,  where he said the  building which used to accommodate two of his companies, Pentrust and GN Life  were  locked under key. Other places like Techiman in the  Bono East  region and Ningo Prampram  also in the Greater Accra region, he said the conditions of the buildings  were  disheartening. 

 He wondered why Ghana was not  in a military rule  yet,  people in authority behaved in a certain manner like “we  are  in a  military regime”. 

He noted that,  it was  rather good to make good friends while in power “so that when you are on retirement  you can still have people always coming to pay  visit to you”.

Dr Nduom was,  however, confident that, the next administration would  restore the licence of the bank and also pay  all the monies owed to his companies.  

According to him, “we are ready to restart our business, to bring back jobs”.  “We believe we should be part of any economic resuscitation”, he added . 

The #BringBackGNBank Team led by Dr Nduom on Monday, August 19, 2024 embarked on the second phase of  the national tour of all the 300 branches of the bank  in the Northern region.  

Readers will recall that,  during the  first part of the tour which started on Sunday, May 27, 2024, the team  went to  six regions including  Eastern , Western, Central, Volta, Greater Accra  and Ashanti.

The second phase of the  tour is expected to cover  Wa, Bolgatanga ,Walewale, Karaga, Tamale Sunyani, Nkoranza and Tuobodom 

 Speaking to Today Newspaper in an interview before the northern regional tour, Dr Nduom said, “the #BringBackGNBank campaign  is  a national journey for local economic development”. 

According to him, the campaign is a repeat of a national tour  he led   in 2018/19 when  the central bank withdrew the licences of some indigenous Ghanaian banks including GN Bank/Savings.  

It  will be  further  recalled that   the message to Ghanaians during that period  was to support indigenous banks and financial institutions in order to ensure Ghanaians had  control over the economy.  It was to demonstrate to the people that it was indigenous financial institutions, especially banks that had invested deep into the regions outside of regional capitals to bring safe and secure services. 

GN Bank with 300 branches became the bank with the widest retail footprint.  Back then, the tour was to show people how the spread of banking to their doorsteps was a sure way to promote economic development everywhere in the country. 

When the indigenous banks were collapsed in 2018 and 2019, according to financial watchers, the local economy suffered,  and micro to medium businesses especially so because it was  those indigenous banks that supported them.  

Not surprisingly, the vacuum created by collapsing indigenous Ghanaian banks, Dr Nduom noted, had still not been filled. 

He further noted that, the space created cannot be filled by any foreign owned banks or the so-called High Street banks.

This national tour, according to the Groupe Nduom chairman, “is to reiterate the commitment of the bank’s  shareholders to the revival of the bank and their resolve to bring safe banking to the people’s doorstep everywhere in the country”.  

He added: “It is to explain the circumstances that led to the withdrawal of the bank’s licence and explain how the shareholders are working to return to the field”.

“It is the Groupe Nduom’s belief that by telling its story of support to the people, and the role the company can play to revive the local economy, the current government administration or the next one will listen to the people; and make sure that GN Bank comes back to serve its critical and useful role; with products and services in more than 300 locations countrywide”, he said.  

According to him, GN Bank did nothing wrong  for its licence to be revoked by the central bank. To this end, he further called on the ruling government to, as matter of urgency pay monies owed to Groupe Nduom companies.