Board Chairman of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) has resigned from office over the collapse of Sovereign Bank, one of five banks the Bank of Ghana shut down recently over breach of banking regulations.
Kwame Acheampong Kyei resigned as the Board Chairman of the now defunct Sovereign Bank shortly before the revocation of operating license by the central bank.
Mr Kyei stated in a letter dated August 22 and addressed to President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that “in view of the recent developments relating to my association with the purchase and assumption of Sovereign Bank, and the resulting unfortunate furore in the media I have decided to voluntarily step down as Chairman/Member of the Board of BOST for the time being.”
According to the Bank of Ghana, Sovereign Bank was closed down because it obtained its banking license under false pretences through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital.
However, in the wake of media discussions of the collapse of the bank, Dr. Kwame Acheampong Kyei explained that he resigned from the Board of Sovereign Bank in March 2018, when he noticed that certain improprieties had taken place in the management of the affairs of the bank without his knowledge.
He suggests that he left Sovereign Bank at least five months before the Bank of Ghana clampdown on the banking sector in August 2018.
Mr Kyei was inaugurated as Chair of a nine-member Board of Directors of BOST in September, however, in the wake of the Sovereign Bank scandal, there were calls for him to step down.
Critics such as Africa Centre for Integrity and Development (ACID-Africa), an anti-corruption advocacy civil society organisation, said the allegation against Sovereign Bank and its Board — and by extension Mr. Kyei — by the central bank made him unfit to be Board Chair of BOST.
In his letter of resignation, Mr Kyei explains that he was leaving his post at BOST “in order to save Government and BOST what is unfortunately distractive adverse commentary and propaganda in sections of the media.”
He, however, clarified: “for the record, this resignation is not an admission of any complicity and/or wrongdoing or whatsoever.”
Bank of Ghana action
The Bank of Ghana on August 1 granted a universal banking license to Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited established by the Government.
The Bank of Ghana also on the same day revoked the licenses of uniBank Ghana Limited, The Royal Bank Limited, Beige Bank Limited, Sovereign Bank Limited, and Construction Bank Limited and merged them in the Consolidated Bank.
The central bank appointed Mr. Nii Amanor Dodoo of KPMG as the Receiver for the five banks.
Source: MyJoyOnline.com
