The commercial court in Accra has declared the appointment of Nii Amanor Dodoo as Receiver of uniBank Ghana Limited as a breach of the Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act (Act 930).

The court also ruled that Mr Amanor Dodoo’s acceptance of the job is in breach of the Act.

The court subsequently struck out all matters on the docket regarding the case. 

The court made the declaration on Thursday, 24 June 2021 when it granted an application by Dr Kwabena Duffuor, the bank’s founder, to strike out a writ of summons issued by the Receiver for illegality and a consequent lack of capacity in the takeover of uniBank.

The court, presided over by Justice Afi Agbanu-Kudemor, held that Nii Amanor Dodoo ought not to have accepted the appointment as Receiver since he acted as a member of the team of accountants from KPMG who were appointed by the Bank of Ghana as the official administrator of uniBank, as his acceptance of the appointment was a clear case of conflict of interest and, therefore, illegal.

The lawyers for Dr Duffuor declined to comment on the ruling after the hearing.

Background

uniBank went into official administration on 20 March 2018 and was eventually collapsed by the Bank of Ghana on 1 August 2018.

The local bank was one of five banks merged by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) into the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limite d.

Official Administrator, KPMG, in the course of its audit, discovered that about GHS5.7 billion was owed by shareholders of uniBank, as of 20 March 2018.

The GHS5.7 billion was the focus of a previous suit by Nii Amanor Dodoo, who was acting as the Receiver.

Among other things, the bank’s interest income and other sources of income were said to be insufficient to cover the associated cost of funds of underlying borrowings and liabilities, as well as overheads of about GHS0.31 billion per annum.

These claims have, however, been challenged by the bank’s directors and Dr Duffuor also sued to get the court to declare the licence of CBG as null and void.