The Africa Centre For Integrity and Development(ACID-AFRICA) has urge the Governor of the Bank Of Ghana Dr. Ernest Addison to be unwavering and courageous in his quest to sanitize and bring confidence in the banking sector.
ACID-AFRICA held a press conference on thr 16th of August,2018 to call for the resignation of the then board chairman of BOST Dr. Kwame Acheampong-Kyei who was the board chairman of the now defunct Sovereign Bank shortly after the revocation of the operating license by the bank of Ghana.
Mr Kyei stated in a letter dated August 22 and addressed to President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that “in view of the recent developments relating to my association with the purchase and assumption of Sovereign Bank, and the resulting unfortunate furore in the media I have decided to voluntarily step down as Chairman/Member of the Board of BOST for the time being.”
According to the Bank of Ghana, Sovereign Bank was closed down because it obtained its banking licence under false pretences through the use of suspicious and non-existent capital.
However, in the wake of media discussions of the collapse of the bank, Dr. Kwame Acheampong Kyei explained that he resigned from the Board of Sovereign Bank in March 2018, when he noticed that certain improprieties had taken place in the management of the affairs of the bank without his knowledge.
He suggests that he left Sovereign Bank at least five months before the Bank of Ghana clampdown on the banking sector in August 2018.
Mr Kyei was inaugurated as Chair of a nine-member Board of Directors of BOST in September, however, in the wake of the Sovereign Bank scandal, there were calls for him to step down.
Critics such as Africa Centre for Integrity and Development (ACID-Africa), an anti-corruption advocacy civil society organisation, said the allegation against Sovereign Bank and its Board — and by extension Mr. Kyei — by the central bank made him unfit to be Board Chair of BOST
RE: DR. KWAME ACHEAMPONG-KYEI RESIGNS AS BOST BOARD CHAIR
PRESS RELEASE FROM AFRICA CENTRE FOR INTEGRITY AND
DEVELOPMENT (ACID-Africa)
28
th August, 2016
For Immediate Release
All Media Houses
Africa Centre for Integrity and Development woke up this morning to the expected news on
the resignation of Dr. Kwame Acheampong-Kyei as Board Chairman for BOST.
Even though the resignation is overdue, we see it as the clearance of the first hurdle. We wish
to take this opportunity to congratulate the media particularly those who supported us by
attending our press conference and also by giving it extensive coverage.
You have indeed shown the power of the media and we at ACID-Africa never doubted that.
We however, want to set the record straight that ACID-Africa will not pat ourselves in the
back on the resignation of Dr. Acheampong-Kyei. We will rather be following all the legal
issues regarding those who are complicit either in the acquisition of fraudulent licenses or the
wanton dissipation of depositors’ money.
We will also urge the media to closely follow all the issues case by case to ensure that there is
transparency in order to ensure there is confidence in our already under banked banking
sector.
We also through this presser informing all Ghanaians that our colossal GHC 8 billion which
might go up to about GHC16 billion inclusive of interest and other unforeseen expenses will
be spent on these consolidated banks.
ACID-Africa believes nobody should have the right to drive a high fuel consuming SUV, live
in mansions in plush suburb of Ghana whiles others take up the bills.
We urge government to ensure that no stone should be left unturned so that all monies can be
retrieved even if it means people spending maximum jail terms or both.
We urge Dr. Ernest Addison to be unwavering and courageous in his quest to sanitize and
bring confidence in the banking sector. We are solidly behind him.
Thank you
——-Signed——
Gyasi Appiah
Communication Director
ACID-Africa
By: Dickson Boadi
