GHANA’S former finance minister Kwabena Duffuor and 12 others are facing a $1.2bn suit over funds that went missing during their tenure as shareholders and directors of the now defunct Unibank Ghana.
Auditing firm KPMG, which is the receiver for Unibank after the lender’s license was revoked in August, is asking the High Court in Accra to declare loans, advances and asset purchases made by certain shareholders and their related interests as unlawful.
Duffuor founded Unibank in 2001 after serving for four years as governor of the central bank and was appointed finance minister by former President John Atta Mills in 2009, a post he held until 2012.
Ghana’s central bank placed Unibank under administration in March before revoking its license as it declared the lender ‘beyond rehabilitation.’
Ghana is cleaning up its banking industry as the regulator is implementing reforms to improve governance and the capital adequacy of lenders.
The holdings of Unibank and four other failing lenders were transferred to the newly created state-owned Consolidated Bank Ghana while the country issued over a $1.2bn bond to bridge the gap between their liabilities and good assets.