By: Edzorna Francis Mensah
The Concerned Ex-employees of GN Savings and Loans Limited (GN), popularly known as GN Bank has passionately appealed to the President of the Republic, and the Governor of Bank of Ghana, to consider the Restoration of the banking license of GN Savings (GN Bank) to enable former employees, customers and shareholders go back to work and regain their livelihoods and that of their dependents.
According to them, restoration of GN license will also help restore the lost confidence in indigenous Ghanaian entrepreneurs and galvanize the private sector as an engine of economic growth.
The Convener of the Group at the news conference in Accra today, August 16, 2023, to commemorate exactly four (4) years since the banking license of GN Savings (GN Bank), was revoked by the Bank of Ghana on 16th August 2019 , Kofi Fosu, one of the former Regional Managers said, “It has been four years of pain, wailing, hunger, stigmatization, joblessness, destruction and suffering”.
“We thus, passionately appeal to the President of the Republic to intervene by using his executive powers to urge the Governor of Bank of Ghana to RESTORE THE OPERATING LICENCE OF GN SAVINGS. Such an action will be a worthy restitution of the lost opportunities to the employees, customers, shareholders and the business community”.
Mr. Fosu however, recognized that the bank was faced with some liquidity challenges at certain point as a result of delays on the part of borrowers to settle their loan obligations on time but “substantial portion of this credit default were due to the government’s inability to honor its obligation to most of our customers who have executed jobs for some state institutions. We believe that the regulator, Bank of Ghana, could have resorted to a more progressive and human-centric approach to remedy the situation at the time, instead of the iron-fisted method adopted to revoke the licence of the bank”.
They again called on the Receiver to take appropriate measures to protect the remaining assets of the bank from further destruction.
“We believe that salvaged assets could be put back to work to create economic value. Shareholders, employees and customers are willing to work together to revive the bank to its past glory the moment the licence is restored”.
They carried placards, some of them read…. “Government workers, teachers, police, nurses, doctors pensioners at remote areas have been cut off from receiving banking services after the revocation of GN Bank Licence, For four years there have not been contributions on SSNIT by over 6,000 ex GN Staff”.