Ethiopia: Abiy Ahmed’s big gamble South Sudan: Another chance at peace AfricThe pan-Africana magazinew of achoice tch Ghana Travesty of justice How dirty politics killed uniBank to bring Kwabena Duffuor down Ken Ofori-Atta Ghana’s economic ‘magician’ who got away with fraud Coronavirus pandemic Africa takes a hit JUNE/JULY 2020 United States: $6.00 l Canada: C$6.50 l UK: £5.00 l Euro Zone: €5.50 l South Africa: R50.00 l Nigeria: N1000 l Ethiopia: Br100.0 l Kenya: KShs350 l Ghana: GH¢12.00 Special RepoRt Ghana TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE How dirty politics killed uniBank Special RepoRt uniBank The tragedy of uniBank ... and the targeting of Dr. Kwabena Duffuor A branch of uniBank Ghana which was closed down by the government on August 1, 2018. ot many people know about the dirty behind- Ministry of Finance regarding these actions. In that bombshell the-scenes politics that led to the collapse letter, Ofori Atta’s subordinates were instructed to keep its in August 2018 of one of Ghana’s largest contents “under wraps” – but it leaked nonetheless. indigenous banks, uniBank. A bank that had What is worse: The government could have saved uniBank if it been going strong for the previous 16 years, wanted, but clearly chose not to. uniBank’s troubles began only 7 months Without even using taxpayers’ resources, the government could after President Nana Akufo-Addo came to have stopped uniBank from going under by simply paying the bank power in 2017. Just a year later the bank about GH¢1.0bn that the government and its related entities was dead, killed through an orchestrated and combined action by already owed uniBank. But Ofori-Atta would not pay this indebt- theN Ministry of Finance, headed by the president’s cousin, Ken edness to uniBank, and instead the Ministry of Finance and Ofori-Atta, the Bank of Ghana (the nation’s central bank) and the the Bank of Ghana combined their powers to use the available Official Administrator/Receiver appointed by the Bank of Ghana insolvency laws to kill uniBank, even though the Ministry of for uniBank. Finance, the Bank of Ghana and the government itself owed uni- Apparently the government was targeting uniBank’s majority Bank nearly a billion Ghana cedis, which, had it been paid, would shareholder, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, the financial magnate from have saved uniBank without needing any other assistance from Kumawu in the Ashanti Region, who once served as the Governor the government. of the Bank of Ghana and later the Minister of Finance under the But that would have defeated their clandestine mission to kill late President John Atta Mills, and belongs to the main opposition the bank and destroy the reputation of its majority shareholder, National Democratic Congress (NDC). In the process of taking Dr. Duffuor. Dr. Duffuor down, the government collapsed uniBank. This is the harrowing story Africawatch reveals on the following During this operation, the government broke almost all the laws pages. It is a tale that brings no honor to Akufo-Addo’s government, that govern the banking sector in order to get its way, causing the and especially its Enforcer-in-Chief, Ken Ofori-Atta. It is a story Attorney-General’s Office to rebuke such blatant disregard of the of sheer dirty politics, the type that causes no nation to prosper law in a January 2019 letter it felt compelled to write to the and allows no citizen to stand proud. 46 June/July 2020 l africawatch Special RepoRt uniBank Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, the majority shareholder of uniBank. africawatch l June/July 2020 47 Special RepoRt uniBank 48 June/July 2020 l africawatch Special RepoRt uniBank Throughout this in-depth report, Africawatch reveals how the clandestine mission by the How uniBank government to kill uniBank actually unfolded. We take readers through the destructive actions undertaken by the Ministry of Finance, headed by was killed Ken Ofori-Atta, the Bank of Ghana, led by Dr. Ernest Addison, and the Official Administrator/ Receiver, KPMG, headed by Nii Amanor Dodoo, and show how they all knowingly colluded to kill one of Ghana’s most promising indigenous banks. ocuments that have recently come into the possession of Africawatch prove that one of Ghana’s largest indige- nous banks, uniBank, was actually destroyed on politi- Dcal grounds simply because the majority shareholder of the bank, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, the former Governor of the Bank of Ghana and later Minister of Finance under the late President John Atta Mills, belonged to the main opposition party. Otherwise, the bank could have been saved, and in fact deserved to have been saved, by President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government. But because Dr. Duffuor be- longed to the opposition National Demo- cratic Congress (NDC), his bank had to die, deliberately killed by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government for the sake of politics! And all this played out under the keen eyes of the president’s cousin, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, who, with the active assistance of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), dealt uniBank a sleight of hand and then buried it. Sadly for Ghana, in the rush to kill this bank, Akufo-Addo’s government, rep- resented by the Ministry of Finance and the BoG, consciously broke almost all the UniBank, a successful indigenous bank, which was shut down laws governing the banking sector just by the NPP government, apparently because its majority so they could dispatch uniBank into shareholder belonged to the main opposition political party. the netherworld with ease, if not with impunity. africawatch l June/July 2020 49 Special RepoRt uniBank Even the Office of the Attorney General down, it endured what the bank’s share- Among Ghana’s new breed of banks, uni- and Ministry of Justice, headed by another holders call “unprecedented, unreasonable, Bank was way ahead of the competition. of Akufo-Addo’s relatives, Gloria Akuffo, unjustified, unannounced and unilateral With the right structures in place – compe- found the unlawful actions of the Ministry audits, downgrades and impairments of its tent and highly-motivated staff, sophisti- of Finance and the BoG so shocking that it loan book and other assets, including even cated infrastructure and a good brand – sent a 11-page letter on January 25, 2019, government, quasi-government, Ministry of uniBank doubled down on its growth and in to Ofori-Atta, rebuking the actions taken to Finance and Bank of Ghana exposures. the process built a Ghanaian brand that close down uniBank (see story on page 68). After the indecent collapse of the bank, was comparable to its peers in the West This is a story that brings no honor to it became clear that these deliberate and African subregion. Ghana’s current government, especially calculated audits of the bank’s operations A leading indigenous lender, uniBank how the government itself, the Ministry of and the downgrades of its assets were done became one of the few banks to support Finance, the central bank, and the many to drive it further into the abyss of insol- the government’s development initiatives quasi-government entities which owed uni- vency and provide grounds for the targeted by financing mainly the consumer and Bank about GH¢1 billion would not pay revocation of the licence.” small/medium enterprises (SMEs) sectors their indebtedness to help the bank stay of the economy. Consequently, its loan book afloat. It was callousness writ large, and increased from GH¢220.6m in 2010 to whoever benefitted from that callousness Before the bank was brutally GH¢536.2m by the end of 2012. Loan re- only Ofori-Atta can tell – because he had in payments were good, and asset quality his gifts the power and resources to stop closed down, it endured what equally so. Ironically, uniBank’s success in uniBank from going under, but he chose not the bank’s shareholders call supporting the government’s development to do it. “unprecedented, unreasonable, initiatives sadly became its downfall. Worse, the Official Administrator and unjustified, unannounced and later Receiver appointed by the BoG to han- Government indebtedness dle the uniBank matter, the international unilateral audits, downgrades accounting firm KPMG, behaved as though and impairments of its loan Starting from 2013, uniBank embarked it was part of the staff of the Ministry of book and other assets.” on an aggressive financing of government Finance, if not the errant BoG, and thus and quasi-government projects, especially helped to hasten the end of uniBank in- in the energy and construction sectors. stead of saving it, as KPMG was actually That action by the BoG ended an illus- Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs) mandated to do. trious 18-year history that began on Feb. 3, became some of the major borrowers from KPMG’s role in the affair so shocked the 2000, when uniBank received its universal uniBank. Thus, total loans and advances uniBank shareholders that they still insist banking license from the BoG and com- increased from GH¢825.3m in 2013 to that Nii Amanor Dodoo, the KPMG official menced operations in 2001 with an initial GH¢2.88bn in 2016. who acted as the Official Administrator for stated capital of GH¢870,000. However, from 2013 onwards, the gov- uniBank and was later made Receiver, was After using the first few years to stabi- ernment and quasi-government customers “illegally appointed” by the BOG. “Was this lize, uniBank experienced exponential could not make their repayments on time to appointment a reward for carrying out growth over a 10-year period, between 2006 uniBank because the government, then BoG’s agenda?”, the shareholders ask.