Dr. Ernest Addison, BoG Governor Twenty-three commercial banks have met the GH¢400 million minimum capital requirement to escape the big axe of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) which has been sanitizing the country’s financial sector over the past 20 months.
So far 11 banks, which were not able to cross the finishing line, have gone underground.
Central Bank Governor Dr Ernest Addison, who announced this at a press conference in Accra yesterday, said as of 31st December, 2018, 16 banks had been able to recapitalise on their own, while the rest managed to get there through mergers, among others.
Dr Addison said that from a total of 34, the banking sector now can now boast of 23 robust and well capitalised banks to undertake big ticket transactions of any kind.
He gave the names of the 16 banks, which crossed the finishing line before the December 31st, 2018, deadline as Access Bank, Consolidated Bank, Bank of Africa, Barclays Bank, Cal Bank, Ecobank, FBN Bank, GCB Bank, GT Bank, Fidelity Bank, Republic Bank, Societe Generale, Stanbic Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, UBA and Zenith Bank.
Dr Ernest Addison said banks that have merged included First Atlantic Merchant Bank Limited/Energy Commercial Bank, OmniBank Ghana Limited/Bank Sahel Sahara Ghana, as well as First National Bank/GHL Bank Limited.
Bailout
He also mentioned that some indigenous banks would benefit from the Ghana Amalgamated Trust (GAT) initiative proposed by some pension funds in the country.
They include ADB, NIB, OmniBank/BSIC, Universal Merchant Bank and Prudential Bank.
In the case of Bank of Baroda, the governor said it was exiting due to strategic reasons.
Details “Following the recapitalisation exercise that ended at the close of business on 31st December 2018, there are now 23 universal banks operating in Ghana. These banks have all met the new minimum paid-up capital of GH¢400 million. Sixteen banks have met the new minimum paid-up capital requirement of GH¢400 million mainly through capitalisation of income surplus and a fresh capital injection.“The Bank of Ghana has approved three applications for mergers. Consequently, First Atlantic Merchant Bank Limited and Energy Commercial Bank have merged, Omni Bank and Bank Sahel Sahara have merged, and First National Bank and GHL Bank have merged. The three resulting banks out of these mergers have all met the new minimum capital requirement.”He added that some private pension funds in Ghana have injected fresh equity capital in five indigenous banks through a special purpose holding company named […]
