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uniBank (Ghana) Limited, commonly known as uniBank, was an indigenous
private bank Private banks are banks owned by either the individual or a general partner(s) with limited partner(s). Private banks are not incorporated. In any such case, creditors can look to both the "entirety of the bank's assets" as well as the entire ...
in
Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
,
West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
. The bank was placed in administration in March 2018 and subsequently consolidated as part of the Ghana Government's handling of its banking crisis. The collapse was controversial as it involved allegations of trading insolvently, and 5 billion cedis in illegal and related party transactions, unlawful loans and illegal acquisition of bank assets by Directors and shareholders. Founded by a former governor of the
Bank of Ghana The Bank of Ghana ( BoG) is the Central Bank of Ghana. It is located in Accra and was formed in 1957. The Bank of Ghana has Seven Regional Offices in addition to its head office in Accra. The regional offices are located in the following citie ...
, uniBank was one of the thirty-five commercial banks licensed to operate in Ghana.


Overview

uniBank was a tier one financial services provider, in 2013 the bank's total assets were valued at approximately US$433 million (GHS:1.3 billion), with shareholders' equity of approximately US$50 million (GHS:151 million). The bank was placed under administration on 20 March 2018 as part of Ghana's ongoing banking crisis. It was subsequently placed in receivership and consolidated into the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited with four other failed banks. At the time of its demise it was reported it had received some 2.2bn cedis since 2016 in liquidity support to enable it to operate. A subsequent report by the receivers reported that the bank was insolvent at the time of the administration and that Directors and shareholders of the bank engaged in illegal transactions by giving out unlawful loans and advances as well as illegal acquisition of assets in the name of related interests. The receiver subsequently sued the founder and various related parties for the return of more than 5 billion cedis. The bank was founded by Dr Kwabena Duffuor, a former Governor of the
Bank of Ghana The Bank of Ghana ( BoG) is the Central Bank of Ghana. It is located in Accra and was formed in 1957. The Bank of Ghana has Seven Regional Offices in addition to its head office in Accra. The regional offices are located in the following citie ...
under the
Jerry Rawlings Jerry John Rawlings (born Jerry Rawlings John; 22 June 194712 November 2020) was a Ghanaian military officer, aviator, and politician who led the country briefly in 1979 and then from 1981 to 2001. He led a military junta until 1993 and then se ...
' NDC Government and former Finance Minister under the Atta Mills' NDC Government. At the time of the bank's demise it was led by his son Dr Kwabena Duffuor II (sometimes referred to as Dr Kwabena Duffuor jr).


History

uniBank was incorporated in 1997 as a financial services provider. Following the issuance of a banking license, uniBank began providing banking services in January 2001, focusing on meeting the banking needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and those of individual customers. In 2009, the bank began offering
Internet banking Online banking, also known as internet banking, virtual banking, web banking or home banking, is a system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial institut ...
and mobile banking.


Ownership

The
stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...
of uniBank is privately held. The detailed shareholding in the company stock is not publicly available at the moment.


Leadership

At the time of the bank's demise, Dr Kwabena Duffuor II had been its chief executive officer since replacing Felix Nyarko-Pong on June 1, 2017. Prior to this, he had served as the chief operating officer from June 2013. Other management included Ekow Nyarko Dadzie-Dennis (chief operating officer), Owusu-Ansah Awere (executive director), Clifford Duke Mettle (executive director), Sylvia Assimeng-Archer (executive secretary), John Collins Arthur (executive head of treasury and global trade), Kwesi Nkrumah Pimpah (director of risk management), Elsie Dansoa Kyereh (executive head of corporate banking) and Florence Ohene (executive head of innovations and business execution).


Branch Network

As of May 2017, uniBank maintained 55 networked branches in nine of Ghana's ten regions namely: Ashanti,
Greater Accra The Greater Accra Region has the smallest area of Ghana's 16 administrative regions, occupying a total land surface of 3,245 square kilometres. This is 1.4 per cent of the total land area of Ghana. It is the most populated region, with a popul ...
, Western Region,
Eastern Region Eastern Region or East Region may refer to: * Eastern Region (Abu Dhabi): Al Ain *Eastern Region, Ghana *Eastern Region (Iceland) *Eastern Region, Malta *Eastern Region, Nepal *Eastern Region, Nigeria * Eastern Region, Serbia *Eastern Region, Ugand ...
,
Brong Ahafo The Brong-Ahafo region was a region in central Ghana. Brong-Ahafo was bordered to the north by the Black Volta river and to the east by the Lake Volta, and to the south by the Ashanti, Eastern and Western regions. The capital of Brong-Ahafo is ...
, Northern Region and
Upper East Region The Upper East Region is located in the northern part of Ghana and it is the third smallest of the 16 administrative regions in Ghana. It occupies a total land surface of 8,842 square kilometers, or 2.7% of the total land area of Ghana. The reg ...
.


Sponsorships

On 7 November 2013, uniBank became the first indigenous bank to sponsor the
Ghana national football team The Ghana national football team represents Ghana in men's international Association football, football. The team is named the Black Stars after the Black Star of Africa in the flag of Ghana. It is governed by the Ghana Football Association, t ...
The Black Stars. This sponsorship agreement between the bank and the
Ghana Football Association The Ghana Football Association (GFA) is the sports governing body, governing body of association football in Ghana, based in the capital city, Accra. Founded in 1957 to replace the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast Football Association whi ...
was a three-year deal worth 1.2 million
dollars Dollar is the name of more than 25 currencies. The United States dollar, named after the international currency known as the Spanish dollar, was established in 1792 and is the first so named that still survives. Others include the Australian d ...
. The deal was hailed by Kwesi Nyantakyi, President of the GFA and was considered timely as the team was preparing for their final phase of the
2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...
in Brazil. The bank per the agreement was to pay the Ghana Football Association 400,000
dollars Dollar is the name of more than 25 currencies. The United States dollar, named after the international currency known as the Spanish dollar, was established in 1792 and is the first so named that still survives. Others include the Australian d ...
per year until 2015.
Brand Ambassador A brand ambassador (sometimes also called a corporate ambassador) is a person paid by an organization or company to represent its brand in a positive light, helping to increase brand awareness and sales. The brand ambassador is meant to embody the ...
- uniBank the official bank of the Black Stars, on January 22, 2014 struck a two-year deal with Black Stars’ captain,
Asamoah Gyan Asamoah Gyan ( ; born 22 November 1985) is a Ghanaian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. He is a former Captain (association football), captain of the Ghana national foo ...
, as its brand icon. Gyan, who led the Black Stars to their third successive
World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...
qualification, will for two years, promote the products and services of the bank. Gyan, as per the terms of the deal, would appear on print and electronic advertising media of the bank, as well as endorse the brand in and outside the country, while the bank will make annual financial commitments to the player.


Bank of Ghana takeover and controversies

On the 20 March 2018, the
Bank of Ghana The Bank of Ghana ( BoG) is the Central Bank of Ghana. It is located in Accra and was formed in 1957. The Bank of Ghana has Seven Regional Offices in addition to its head office in Accra. The regional offices are located in the following citie ...
appointed
KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...
, an audit firm, as administrators for uniBank. Emmanuel Akrong, who is the author of Asset Quality Performance of Banks in Ghana, the book that predicted the collapse of at least eight banks, has claimed "Unibank was borrowing to finance its loans" before its takeover by
Bank of Ghana The Bank of Ghana ( BoG) is the Central Bank of Ghana. It is located in Accra and was formed in 1957. The Bank of Ghana has Seven Regional Offices in addition to its head office in Accra. The regional offices are located in the following citie ...
. UniBank was one of nine banks identified after the asset quality review exercise undertaken in 2016, to be significantly undercapitalised with a CAR of 4.75%. The bank, in a statement released by the governor of
BoG A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and musk ...
, persistently suffered liquidity shortfalls and consistently breached its cash reserve requirement.
KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...
were announced as administrators of the bank and were given six months to manage the bank after which it was to revert to an unnamed private organization. It was reported at the time that the bank had a negative capital adequacy of -24% at December 2017 and had been reliant on more than 2.2 billion cedis (US$498m at the time) of liquidity support from the BoG. Following a confidential report by KPMG, the bank was placed in receivership under KPMG. On 1 August 2018, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) announced that it was creating the Consolidated Bank Gh. Ltd to take over the bank with four other struggling banks. The receiver subsequently sued the founder and various related parties for the return of more than 5 billion cedis alleging the bank was insolvent at the time of the administration and that directors and shareholders of the bank engaged in illegal transactions by giving out unlawful loans and advances as well as illegal acquisition of assets in the name of related interests and illegal related party transactions. The defendants include the founder Dr Duffuor and Hoda Holdings Ltd, Hoda Properties, Alban Logistics, Starlife Assurance, Dr Kwabena Duffuor II, Boatemaa Kakra Duffuor-Nyarko and Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye. On 20 May 2018, it was reported that nearly 500 uniBank employees had been served with dismissal letters. Those affected included security personnel and tellers who were outsourced from a company allegedly owned by Dr Kwabena Duffuor, founder of the bank. On 21 August 2018, it was reported that the founder of the bank, Dr Duffuor, was suing the Ghana Government in an attempt to regain control of the bank. Among other issues he claimed that the revocation of uniBank's banking licence constituted an unlawful expropriation of the bank's property and he challenged the legality of issuing a banking licence to the new consolidating entity Consolidated Bank Ghana. The lawsuit also disclosed that almost all the bank's loan book had been classed as impaired by the Government appointed Receiver. On 16 October 2018, it was further reported that the son of the founder and former CEO of the bank, Dr Kwabena Duffuor II was suing KPMG and some of its staff accusing them of deceit and deliberately misleading the Bank of Ghana and government into collapsing the bank. Dr Kwabena Duffuor II alleges that KPMG's commercial interest in further work influenced its report to the government.


See also

* List of banks in Ghana *
Economy of Ashanti The economy of the Ashanti Region in southern Ghana is largely self-sufficient, being driven by its service sector as well as by natural resources. The region is also known for its production of manganese, bauxite and agricultural commodities s ...
*
Economy of Ghana } The economy of Ghana has a diverse and rich resource base, including the manufacturing and export of digital technology goods, automotive and ship construction and export, and the export of resources such as hydrocarbons and industrial minerals ...


References


External links


Website of UniBank Website of Bank of GhanauniBank sponsors Ghana Black Stars
{{Economy of Ghana Banks of Ghana Companies based in Accra Banks established in 1997 Ghanaian companies established in 1997