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The Bank of Ghana has stated that the savings of UniBank customers are safe despite the management of the bank being taken over by KPMG.
On Tuesday many Ghanaians were thrown into a state of huge surprise following news that UniBank had been taken over by the BoG.
A statement from the Central Bank explained that the bank’s “capital adequacy ratio (CAR) has fallen below 50% of the required minimum of 10% (i.e. below 5%).”
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The statement said the bank will be put under the management of audit firm KPMG for the next six months, before it is returned to private ownership and management.
Sections of the statement read: “Under section 108 of Act 930, the Official Administrator is authorized to exercise a variety of powers to rehabilitate and return the bank to regulatory compliance within a period of six months, at the end of which the bank will be returned to private ownership and management.
“The appointment by the Bank of Ghana of the official administrator is aimed at saving UniBank from imminent collapse.”
According to the BoG, this “will prevent potential losses to depositors and other creditors, and ensure that the financial condition of the bank does not create further risks for the entire financial system.”
The general concern following the takeover has been over the safety of monies owned by customers of UniBank, with some habouring doubts over whether they would be able to retrieve their savings.
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However, speaking on the subject, the Governor of the BoG, Dr. Ernest Addison, emphatically assured that “nobody will lose money.”
He said all customers can be rest assured that their savings are safe and are not any danger of being lost despite the takeover.
Dr. Addison said: “The bank will continue to run as usual, all depositors’ funds are safe. Nobody will lose money. We’ve proven that earlier and nobody will lose money in this exercise. All that the Bank has done is to put in a new team to manage the bank. We are trying to save the bank from imminent collapse. We are saving an indigenous Ghanaian-owned bank.”