Merger Of Banks: Unibank shareholders took GH¢5.3bn from bank

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has disclosed that shareholders of uniBank took GH¢5.3 billion from the bank without going through the right procedures.

This amount constituted a 75 percent of total assets of the bank.

BoG explained that shareholders, related and connected parties took a total amount of GH¢3.7 billion which were neither granted through the normal credit delivery process nor reported as part of the bank’s loan portfolio.

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uniBank had also given to shareholders, related and connected parties GH¢1.6 billion in the form of loans and advances without due process and in breach of relevant provisions of Act 930.

Due to this development, The Official Administrator appointed for uniBank in March 2018 said that the bank was beyond rehabilitation.

In 2016, the BoG identified UniBank and Royal Bank to be significantly undercapitalized during the Asset Quality Review update.

The two banks subsequently submitted capital restoration plans to the Bank of Ghana.

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The plans of the banks yielded no results in returning the banks to solvency and compliance with prudential requirements.

The BoG has subsequently merged Unibank together with four other banks namely Beige bank, Construction bank, Royal Bank, Unibank and Sovereign Bank.

The merged banks have been named the Consolidated Bank Ghana limited.