Ghana’s Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, proposed to buy Capital Bank according to Ato Essien

This is the first time Mr Essien is speaking after the bank he founded collapsed in 2017.

The Bank of Ghana on Monday, August 14, 2017, revoked the licences of UT and Capital banks due to their insolvency, leading to a seamless takeover of the two banks by GCB Bank.

In an interview on Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana, Mr Essien, said he is speaking out now because he believes the narrative surrounding the status of the bank after it was put into administration has changed significantly.

“If the bank was that bad would the current finance minister and the board chairman of Enterprise Keli Gadzekpo come to my office to say we are interested to buy Capital bank? Ken Ofori Attah came to my office in 2016 to make that proposal.”

He also said claims that the board chair of the bank Dr. Mensah Otabil did not have the required knowledge to lead the board and direct affairs of the bank were false.

This is coming few days after the CEO of defunct UT Bank Prince Amoabeng said that his bank loaned money to the finance minister’s company when it was struggling sometime in the past.

“In actual fact, our president; today’s president, when he was in opposition in his own party in around 2003, he came to UT of all places, a local company, and we gave him a loan and he admits that.”

“The Minister of Finance, same thing; his own company would have gone down…and I said this’s Ghanaian company and they still got the potential and we help them out,” Mr Amoabeng added.