Story:  Atta Kwaku Boadi

The Sege branch of GN Bank in the Greater Accra region has now turned into a dormitory Today Newspaper can confirm.  

The GN Bank’s licence  which was revoked by the central  bank had over 300 branches across the country at the time of the revocation.

The properties of the bank which include cross-country vehicles, motor bikes, industrial generators, air conditions, office furniture among others have been left to rot since the  Bank of Ghana (BoG) appointed  one Eric Nana Nipa as a Receiver  to  take care of the bank’s assets  after the revocation.

After back- and- forth in court over the revocation of the bank’s licence, the shareholders of GN Bank led by the Chairman of Groupe Nduom, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, former employees of the bank and  Groupe Nduom managers last week began a nationwide tour of all the  300 branches of GN Bank to ascertain  the state of the bank’s assets and also  assure their customers that the bank will be back to serve their economic interests.

The tour which started in the Greater Accra region on Sunday, May 27, 2029  took the team to Central, Western, Eastern and Volta regions. 

In the Greater Accra region Dr Nduom and his team toured  the  GN Bank’s branches at Dawa, Tsopoli, Ningo Prampram, Meotso, Anyaman, Sege and Koluedor. 

At Sege for example, Today observed that,  the  beautiful  edifice of GN Bank’s branch has now been turned into a dormitory.  Dresses of students  were  seen hanging on the fence  walls of the building. School furniture, fridge,  and food stuffs were also  found inside  the building.

A portion of the building inside has also been converted into a kitchen. Although  there was nobody manning the building like other branches Dr Nduom and his team visited earlier, Today found out that the occupants of the building were  the final year Junior High School (JHS) students who were using there as their sleeping and learning place.

Speaking to the media, the Groupe Nduom chairman bemoaned the state of the building, and called on the government to, as a matter of urgency restore the licence of GN Bank.  

He did not understand why BoG took the decision to collapse the bank when it had not done anything wrong. 

According to the business magnate, that singular  decision by the Akufo-Addo government  to collapse  GN Bank  had brought untold hardships onto many  Ghanaians. 

He said, 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. 

Readers will  recall  the message to Ghanaians during that period  was to support indigenous banks and financial institutions in order to ensure Ghanaians have  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 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 renowned entrepreneur, “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.  

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 7.1 billion Ghana cedis and is still climbing”, he said.

A demand letter for this amount, Today’s investigations showed  was served on the administration with copies to the president, vice president, chief of staff, attorney general, minister of finance, COCOBOD, GETFund, Ministries  of Works and Housing and Roads and Highways, etc. two months ago. 

Our checks with Groupe Nduom also  showed  that no responses have been received from government or its agencies.

“Some claim it is because there is no money.  Even one quarter of that money will revive the GN companies.  The message, is that the solution is the payment of debts owed by government and its agencies”, Dr Nduom said.

According to Groupe Nduom “there are powerful forces in the current administration that don’t want to see it succeed especially in the financial system”.   

“This current national journey is to find out if the people want GN Bank back to serve them; and if the demand for its unique mobile and digital support banking services still exist”, Dr Nduom said. 

While the focus is on banking and GN Bank, Dr. Nduom said,  he will use this journey to tell the story of Groupe Nduom’s unique and unmatched delivery of a diversified portfolio of goods and services made in Ghana – production of rice, television, refrigerators, food containers, building materials, set top boxes, insurance, pension, hospitality, media all across the country; a true and committed stakeholder in the Ghanaian economy.

“Through this national journey, the will of the people will be manifest and shall prevail”, he said.