Professor John Gatsi, the Dean of Business School of the University of Cape Coast, has debunked the assertion that the Bank of Ghana can refuse to restore the licenses of the failed banks in the country.
The Professor thus, set the record straight, arguing that the Central Bank has no such powers to refuse to restore the licenses of the banks it has unduly revoked.
“The Bank of Ghana need not to agree; I don’t know what the Bank of Ghana is going to agree about. It is an administrative decision and not a judicial decision. Administrative decisions are always reviewed by either a commission or through the court. The Bank of Ghana does not have the power to say I will not agree.”
Professor John Gatsi
Citing an example, Prof Gatsi explained that during the coup d’etat era, a lot of people were treated unfairly, so during the national reconciliation exercise, some Ghanaians came out to vent their experiences and those that the commission found to have had their rights violated, the state apologized to them and compensated them.
“Some had their properties returned to them, so if we find a mass scale exercise that endangered people’s investment, it is only proper we create a platform for these people to vent their experiences of how the processes were done, how the bank of Ghana didn’t listen to their proposal and how people were charged with criminal offences for their licenses to be revoked.”
Professor John Gatsi
BOG Hurts Ghanaians
The Dean maintained saying, the point remains that BOG has hurt people and if it is found that indeed the due process was not adhered to and they have been treated unfairly, there should not be any problem for BOG to apologize and restore their revoked license.
According to Prof Gatsi, there is nothing too costly to restore the right that was endangered and people’s investments that were destroyed, hence cost must not be a hindrance.
“We need to allow people to vent their experiences and out of that we will know whether some people were fairly treated or not, then actions could be taken.”
Professor John Gatsi
A similar sentiment was shared by a renowned economist, Kwame Pianim, who said that if it is proven that some of the banks that went under during the recapitalization exercise collapsed due to political reasons then the licenses of those banks should be restored.
It can recalled that the former President and flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Mahama, made a promise to restore the licenses of the banks that collapsed due to ‘proven political’ reasons.
However, some political opponents described the promise given by the former president as a mere political talk which is not within his remit. The sceptics also ask the question of what if the Bank of Ghana refuses to reinstate them.
