'BoG Minimum Capital not Good’

President and Chairman of Groupe Nduom, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, has stated that the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG’s) decision to increase the minimum capital requirement for all banks from a one hundred and twenty million Ghana cedis (GH¢120,000,000) to four hundred million Ghana cedis (GH¢400,000,000) was not a good move.

 
According to Dr. Nduom, banks have different focus and target groups and as such, some make more money than others and so asking all of them to fulfill the same requirement will only lead to the collapse of some banks.
 
He said, “there are banks that have different purposes, different goals so to lump all the banks together and say that everybody must meet a certain minimum without regard to their business objectives or their goals or their business plan for me it is not right for a system such as what we have here in Ghana.”
 
According to Dr. Nduom, the Bank of Ghana can draw lessons from countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America where people can set up banks with as little as £10,000,000 and $5,000,000 respectively based on their objectives.
 
He said there shouldn’t be efforts to force the reduction of banks in Ghana as that will not augur well for the country in the long-run.
 
The business mogul was also quick to add that GN Bank would be able to meet the deadline for the roll out of the new capital requirement as plans to raise the money has already begun.
 
“Our intent definitely is to meet that requirement and we should be able to do so,” Dr. Nduom added.
 
He also called on other Ghanaian-owned banks to do well to meet the deadline.