Immediate past Deputy Managing Director (MD) of the failing National Investment Bank (NIB) speaking on the current state of the bank blamed its woes on the poor management structures put in place for running its affairs.
The bank which currently has a capital deficit and was one of the first to donate GH₵185,000 to COVID-19 Trust Fund cannot retrieve its loans from defaulting customers. And it is believed to have lost its bearing.
This disclosure was made in an interview with Alfred Thompson, former Deputy MD of the bank on the Happy Morning Show hosted by Samuel Eshun on Happy 98.9 FM.
“The poor managerial skills that went on and their inability to reclaim most of their loans is what has affected their (NIB) finances and that is why the fortunes of the bank started dwindling around 2014/15,” he shared.
The banker who left NIB over health conditions somewhere last year however believes that with the current support from government, the bank is going to become great again and achieve its mandate of supporting small industries.
“But now that measures have been put in place to revive the bank, things will keep on getting better and better,” he said.
Alfred Thompson appealed to Ghanaians to give the bank a second chance by keeping their investment in there and by getting more people to save with the bank.
“The bank is being put on the right footing and the staff want to turn it around. They need the support of Ghanaians to do well. It is only if you support your own that the bank will make profit and so we need to deposit with NIB.”
He added that the customer service of the bank was also being improved upon and that would soon cease being a problem for customers.
According to reports, the government of Ghana, in August this year was forced to inject some GH₵800 million into the operations of NIB to help it close the bank’s deficit, boost its operations and support the national industrialization agenda.
The injection of funds into the bank’s operations is part of efforts to make the bank compliant with the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) requirements on minimum stated capital for banks and also make it more competitive.
By: Joel Sanco
