Unibank closure: ‘I paid heavily’ for becoming BoG Governor, Finance Minister – Duffuor

Former Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor has spoken about the closure of his bank

The closure he said was a big blow and a painful experience

He believes the closure is linked to previous roles he held

Former Finance Minister, Kwabena Duffuor has spoken for the first time

Read full articleabout how he survived the closure of a bank he had founded, which bank he described as a “big bank” at the time it was closed by the state.

He described the closure in 2018 of Unibank as a ‘big blow’ and ‘painful’ experience but added that he had also come to understand why it happened.

GhanaWeb monitored comments he made on Citi FM’s ‘Point of View’ programme on Monday, November 29, 2021. “It was a big blow, but I was lucky the family was behind me. Very painful experience but I understood it.

“You’ve been a governor, a finance minister, both high profile jobs; you will pay for that. So I paid heavily for it but because of my family, I was able to handle it,” he told host Bernard Avle.

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The Bank of Ghana in August 2018 undertook a series of measures under the ‘Banking Sector Cleanup’ programme that birthed Consolidated Bank of Ghana, CBG.

CBG was made up of Duffuor’s Unibank, Royal Bank, Beige Bank, Construction Bank and Sovereign Bank. Tow other banks were added later - HBL and Premium Bank.

The Central Bank had a year ago in August 2017 approved a similar takeover of two banks - UT Bank and Capital Bank, by the state-owned GCB Bank Limited.

The case of Unibank has been in court since 2018 and Duffuor shied from commenting on it save to say he believed a favourable outcome will result. Unibank and UT Bank have also petitioned Parliament to look into the circumstances that led to their closure.