Renowned Ghanaian pastor denies wrongdoing in the Capital Bank collapse

This was part of his defence he filed in response to a suit filed by Messrs Vish Ashiagbor and Eric Nana Nipah from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

According to the plaintiffs, the bank’s collapse was a “direct result of defendants’” “misgovernance” and “willful” breaches of banking regulations.

But responding to the suit, Pastor Otabil, said that the debt of a total of GHȼ482 million on the books of the now-defunct Capital Bank was not a result of the negligence of the directors.

In his defence filed at the court, he said, Pastor Otabil said contrary to allegations, the board he chaired did not send any misrepresentation to the Bank of Ghana for the granting of the requisite banking license.

He explained that the plaintiff who identified various outstanding assets to the microfinance days of the First Capital Plus Foundation which later became a bank.

He said it was these legacy assets that threatened the health of the Capital Bank.

He added that they informed the central bank of these non-performing assets.

They also told the Central Bank of the decision by shareholders to accept responsibility for the GHȼ482 million debt which they planned to pay back within five years using their dividends.

He explained that the shareholders put their shares on the line so the bank could have a clean bill of health.

Pastor Mensa Otabil and his church ICGC are part of the 15 shareholders and directors of Capital Bank who have been sued over the collapse of the bank in 2017.

The joint receivers who sued the shareholders and directors are seeking to recover a total sum of GHȼ748 million from shareholders of the bank.

Pastor Otabil responded in a statement that, during his non-executive role as a Board Chairman of the bank, some decisions that were made turned out well while some did not turn out as well as had been anticipated.

"As far as I can tell, everything was done with the best of intentions and the interest of various stakeholders in mind,” he had said.