Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has commended the transformation of the National Investment Bank (NIB), attributing the institution’s recovery to strong leadership and sound management.
Speaking at the launch of a book documenting NIB’s revival, Mr Bagbin described the bank’s resurgence as evidence that visionary leadership can restore struggling state institutions.
While celebrating the bank’s recent gains, the Speaker criticised years of poor governance and mismanagement which he said nearly crippled one of Ghana’s key financial institutions despite its contribution to national development.
Mr Bagbin recalled that NIB played a major role in financing businesses and was instrumental in the establishment of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB). However, he said governance failures later affected the bank’s performance, citing its inability to publish audited financial statements for more than a decade up to 2024.
“National Investment Bank even gave birth to what is now the Agricultural Development Bank and yet by 2024 that same hitherto robust institution had not published a single set of audited accounts in more than a decade,” he said.
“This is one of many governance failures which this book strips naked for the patriotic Ghanaian to stare at with revulsion and pledge to eradicate from our state corporate governance,” he added.
The Speaker urged public officials and citizens to demand greater accountability in the management of state institutions to prevent similar challenges in the future.
He also praised NIB Managing Director, Chief Dr Doli-Wura Abdul-Malik Seidu Zakaria, for leading the bank’s turnaround through strategic reforms and innovative management.
“I have witnessed at close distance and with much admiration how he identified community challenges and turned them into businesses that created employment, increased government’s tax revenue and offered succour to distressed communities,” Mr Bagbin said.
He said NIB’s recovery demonstrates that state institutions can be rebuilt when guided by vision, accountability and commitment.
NIB outlines recovery gains
Chief Dr Doli-Wura Abdul-Malik Seidu Zakaria said the book was not intended to celebrate an individual but to document the collective effort behind the bank’s recovery and provide lessons for future leaders of public institutions.
Describing the publication as a “learning document,” he said it was inspired by a lesson from his late father, Alhaji Seidu Zakaria, who taught him that “what is unfinished does not disappear; it waits.”
Chief Dr Zakaria outlined reforms that he said transformed the bank within 18 months.
He disclosed that NIB’s profit increased from GH¢3.1 million in 2024 to GH¢344 million in 2025, with an additional GH¢94 million recorded in the first half of 2026, bringing total profits over the period to GH¢438 million.
He said customer deposits doubled from GH¢6.4 billion in 2024 to GH¢12.9 billion, while total assets increased from GH¢5.8 billion to GH¢14.9 billion by June 2026.
The Managing Director also disclosed that NIB became the first bank to complete its recapitalisation within four months, securing GH¢1.97 billion in recapitalisation funds.
He added that the bank’s negative equity of GH¢851 million in 2024 had been reversed to a positive GH¢1.64 billion by June 2026, while its Capital Adequacy Ratio improved from negative 47% to 48.1%.
According to him, non-performing loans declined from 76% in 2024 to 52.21% by mid-2026, while cost-cutting measures reduced operational expenses by 25%.
Despite the progress, Chief Dr Zakaria stressed that NIB’s transformation remains ongoing, with further reforms and branch modernisation underway.
He said sustainable institutional change depends on people and leadership, rather than infrastructure and technology alone.
He urged leaders across sectors to view leadership as stewardship rather than ownership, expressing hope that the book would inspire confidence that struggling institutions can be rebuilt.
