Captain Prince Kofi Amoabeng (Rtd), the owner of the now-defunct UT Bank, has admitted that he once used the bank to bail out President Akufo-Addo and his cousin, Finance Minister Kenneth Ofori-Atta, when they needed money.
The businessman claims he is still perplexed as to why his bank failed, especially given that he had no issues dealing with state officials, contrary to popular belief.
He claimed that the Finance minister, with whom he is still friendly, was a buddy he was so close to that he "could even dine with, spend time together in each other's house" and that he could not claim that conflict was the reason for his downfall.
The businessman and philanthropist expressed his shock when he spent time with Ken Ofori-Atta on a Sunday evening only to learn the next morning that government had taken over his bank without giving him prior notice of the development in a conversation with Captain Smart on Maakye Wednesday, March 1, 2023.
He claimed that even though his bank had some difficulties when the NPP took office, they were able to resolve several issues with state officials, making the suspension of his licence rather unexpected.
"I've had the opportunity to literally bail out the people who are in government today using the same UT, and I gave them the opportunity and tried to become who they are now.”
"UT was there to bail out the President himself (Akufo-Addo) at some point, and Ken Ofori Atta and the others, his associates, and Databank, yes, UT bailed them out.”
“But even if you collapse it, it shouldn't have been done the way it was since we've fed you before. You can contact me and tell me the problem is beyond repair, but I don't want the police breaking into our building at 6 in the morning and chopping down our signs because I had no idea”, he said to host Captain Smart.
"They were freezing the accounts of all UT companies, it was not only the bank," the ex military officer continued.
The man claims that despite the difficulties he has faced here, he will not regret becoming a Ghanaian in his next life.
“In my next life, I'd like to return to Ghana and live there. I dislike spending a lot of time outside. My longest stay outside was two weeks. I hastily gave them my passport when they asked to keep it after I went to EOCO for investigations. So I informed them that I didn't require a passport to travel to Kukurantumi," he said.
Nonetheless, Mr. Amoabeng is not considering returning to the banking industry.
"I won't go to banking any longer because I'm fatigued. I doubt I'd mind offering counsel while serving on a board. I've moved past that (operating a bank).”
The UT Bank was one of two banks, along with Heritage Bank, whose failure in August 2017 signalled the beginning of a financial sector clean-up initiative that resulted in the licences of nine banks and more than 370 financial entities being revoked.
The operation ended up costing the state more than GH21 billion and caused chaos for thousands of workers and their family.
According to sources, GH9 billion might have been used to revive the institutions.
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