Former Finance Minister

Former Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr Kwabena Duffuor, says the country is in crisis.

According to the owner of defunct uniBank, the country is endowed with massive natural resources but has been unable to exploit them to the benefit of the people.

Speaking at a forum organised by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), the former Finance Minister, under the erstwhile President Mills government, charged government and all other stakeholders to ensure a change in the current narrative or future generations will not forgive its leaders.

“The narrative should change immediately, otherwise our children will not forgive us. Our natural resources endowment can change this country, if we decide to use them efficiently and honestly, we are not doing that,” he stressed.

“We cannot disagree that Ghana is a very wealthy nation but Ghanaians are poor, that’s where the problem is. Why are we poor but we are sitting on wealth, so what do we do?” he queried.

Dr Duffuor asked what the clergy and the media in particular, are doing to change the narrative and put Ghana on the path of prosperity so that Ghanaians can reap the benefits of the natural resources.

“So the clergy, what are you doing? The media, what are you doing? Ghana is in crisis.”

Dr Duffuor’s defunct uniBank’s license was revoked by the Bank of Ghana, together with five other banks to form the new Consolidated Bank Ghana.

The Bank of Ghana revoked the licenses of a total of nine banks in its bid to clean up the sector.

The BoG cited various reasons including capital adequacy ratio crisis, poor corporate governance, overexposure to related parties among others.

The shareholders of the bank have been in court challenging the decision of the Bank of Ghana to revoke the licenses and recently petitioned Parliament on the matter.

Parliament has set up a committee chaired by First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Wusu to look into the petition and present a report to the House.