Following the Bank of Ghana’s withdrawal of licences of five struggling local banks and their subsequent consolidation into the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited (CBG), the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) is rejecting cheques from those constituent banks: Sovereign Bank, Royal Bank, The Beige Bank, Construction Bank and Unibank.
This came to light when a cashier at the Ho office of the ECG rejected a uniBank cheque from Ho-based HoFM92.5’s General Manager, Togbui Ahorgo I, who had gone to pay bills.
Togbui Ahorgo I, who was shocked by the turn of events, told HoFM’s sister station, Class91.3FM in an interview that: “On Friday, (4 August 2018), we went to ECG’s office to buy electricity prepaid credit only for the cashier to tell us that they couldn’t sell the credit to us. Initially, she did the input and realising that the cheque was a uniBank cheque, decided to reverse the transaction and said they couldn’t sell to us.
“So, I didn’t understand but was told it was an order from above. I requested to see the regional accountant and she was also talking about the fact that sometimes when they take the cheque, the cheques do not go through, and, so, they do not take cheques and I pointed out to her that we have always used cheques to buy power from them and my information was that they were rejecting uniBank cheques for the fact that it is among the banks that have been consolidated.
“It was then that she reached out for her phone and read a WhatsApp message that was sent to them from their head office that they shouldn’t take any cheques that bear the name of any of the defunct five banks that have been consolidated…”
Meanwhile, the Ho Regional Public Relations Officer of the ECG, Fred Baimbill Johnson, has justified the rejection of the cheque.
He said: “Our position is that following the announcement by the Bank of Ghana, we are not accepting cheques from the affected banks that have been consolidated now. We are also a cooperate institution, so, we take measures to secure our revenue, and, so, based on some past experiences, once the announcement has been made that these banks are no more going to run as independent organisations, then we can’t take cheques from the individual banks affected. It’s not a matter of who is paying, it’s a matter of where the cheque is coming from, so, once it’s a cheque from any of the affected banks, we are not accepting.”
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