The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority Caucus in Parliament, Thursday, urged the government to embark on a considerable restructuring of the alleged ailing National Investment Bank (NIB) to prevent the bank’s potential liquidation.
At a press conference in Parliament House, Mr Isaac Adongo, the Ranking on Parliament’s Finance Committee challenged the government’s decision in considering an alleged liquidation of NIB, suggesting that there would have been hidden rationales behind the government’s activity.
He said there was a viable alternative to the bank’s predicament, where the NDC and Minority had proposed the need for the government to restructure NIB’s balance sheet by converting all NIB debts owed to the government into equity.
“The government should just restructure the balance sheet of NIB to swap all the NIB debts that it owes the government and give the government equity but the government says it doesn’t have money to capitalise the bank but it has given 500 million bonds to NIB and it has given 800 million debt to NIB the two will give you 1.2 billion…commit to say that is your commitment to recapitalisation so we issue shares for you,” Mr Adongo alleged.
Dr Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, the Minority Leader, told the Press that the Caucus would only support the approval of the $250 World Bank facility for the financial stability fund if priority was given to struggling state banks.
