It was a day that came with shock, disappointments, and heartbreaks; not only for owners of banks that were being wiped out by the Bank of Ghana and the ruling government – the New Patriotic Party (NPP), but also for persons whose monies were with those banks and others who worked for those institutions.
One such affected person was owner of the UT Bank – Prince Kofi Amoabeng Rtd.
Speaking to GTV on the station’s breakfast show, Kofi Amoabeng recounted the events as they happened on the day the announcement of UT Bank’s license revocation was made.
“It was a normal day, I just finished playing golf in my village - Kukrantumi and I even talked to the Minister of Finance, he called me and asked me how the bank was doing, and I said, there was no problem, only bank of Ghana is not reacting fast to the investors who presented to them, we talked about our families and that was that and then I went to bed.
“I was probably the last person to hear because I woke up like normal, and got to have my coffee, watched CNN a little bit and then went upstairs to the bathroom and then I picked up my phone and I had about 63 missed calls. At that stage, my mind went to, ‘oh God, what happened to my family, maybe I had lost a son or something’,” Kofi Amoabeng stated.
“I wasn’t thinking about the bank, don’t forget I had resigned from the bank in 2015, this closure came at the end of 2017, so I wasn’t at the helm of affairs at the bank and I was trying to put my life together and all.
“So then I called my daughter and said ‘why is everyone calling me’ and she said, ‘haven’t you watched the news? The government says they have taken over UT or withdrawn the license’, I said ok and that’s it.
“I was going to drive back, my other sister said I shouldn’t drive, I said no, so I drove alone and came back to Accra to see what could be done. So no birds flew, I didn’t have a clue,” he added.
The business mogul noted how efforts to meet the Bank of Ghana and government over the way forward proved futile.
“When I got back and we had an emergency board meeting, we wrote to BoG asking for a meeting to discuss the next step, nobody bothered to answer even one letter, even went to the head of the economic team – the vice president, nobody bothered to answer.
“I won’t treat anyone like that but if that is how leaders will treat institutions and people, then that is too bad,” he added.
He also noted how the collapse of the bank affected the entire UT Group brand.
“It was one of big disappointment and confusion because the UT Bank was the flagship company of the whole UT group – you know we had UT properties, UT private securities, UT life, and all that but the bank was the star and it meant that the brand had been stabbed in the back,” Mr. Amoabeng added.
You can also watch this episode of People & Places here:
Prince Kofi Amoabeng Rtd is former CEO of the UT Bank