The unannounced collapse of some of Ghana’s best-known brands – UT and Capital banks has raised several questions in the minds of the business community and the public in general. More specifically, it has called into question the integrity of both the annual report of the Bank of Ghana upon which most of the assessment is done as well as that of the ‘banking awards’ itself.
How does one reconcile that UT Bank that bagged Ghana’s ‘bank of the year 2011’ award – a prize whose basic criteria is supposed to be one having the best balance sheet in the country, is exactly six years later declared bankrupt over what is obviously the result of at least five years of accumulated liabilities?
Some would argue that a defunct UT bank winning the ‘best e-zwich bank of the year 2015’ was just based on the efficiency of its operation of the interbank exchange platform and has nothing to do with balance sheets: how much debt it’s owing and how much of them it’s capable of paying on their maturity but should one fail to ask - what exactly is the basic criteria for being nominated for a national or international banking award?
Is it not clear that a feature as nominee on any category of an industry-wide award is a clear endorsement of your services? Is it not an assertion that an institution – a financial one at that, has fulfilled the basic conditions that make it worthy of the unsuspecting public’s confidence?
So we don’t get accused of picking on any institution in particular: you might want to know that barely last year – 2016, the defunct Capital bank was adjudged the ‘best growing’ bank at the 15th edition of the ‘prestigious’ Ghana banking awards – also raising the question of the basis for its credibility for the award on at least two rationale views:
Is a business (a bank) not said to be growing when it has at least marginally more resources than its expenses or debts?
How was the bank’s growth even measured in the first instance when both Capital and UT bank have, over the last 5 years not disclosed their financial statements?
It all gets down to one thing: may be the banking awards are just a Public Relations stunt for the financial institutions, and do anything but reflect the true assessment of their credibility for public business.
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