Story: Yaw Takyi 

All is set for  the much anticipated #BringBackGNBank  rally today, Monday, December 2, 2024 in Elmina in the Central region.

According to the Chairman of Groupe Nduom, the rally is to drum home the need for the ruling government to reinstate the licence of GN Bank.  

 Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom said this during one of his Wednesday’s Facebook live  broadcast.

Readers will recall that, the business mogul on May 27, 2024 led former employees of GN Bank/Savings and managers of Groupe Nduom to tour all the 300 branches/locations of the bank .     

Everywhere the team visited, Today learnt, he customers of the bank  were happy to hear that the bank would be back soon to serve them. 

Dr Nduom noted during the tour that, the #BringBackGNBank  was  a national journey for local economic development.  He indicated that it was a repeat of a national  tour  he led   in 2018/19. 

He recounted the message he told Ghanaians during that period  was to support indigenous banks and financial institutions in order to ensure Ghanaians had  control over the economy.  

He further noted that, It was  the 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 said that ,the space created could not  be filled by any foreign owned banks or the so-called High Street banks.

Speaking to Today in an interview ahead of the rally, the Groupe Nduom chairman said,  “it 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: “the  rally as part of the nationwide tour  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.

He explained that if the government had paid the monies  owed to  GN Bank, and other Groupe Nduom companies, the bank wouldn’t have been declared insolvent.  

“We are calling on the current Akufo-Addo Administration to lift the embargo on payments to Groupe Nduom companies and the contractors whose contracts they had pre-financed.  That debt has ballooned to over  7.1 billion Ghana cedis and is still climbing”, he said.