(Ecofin Agency) - In a release published January 5, 2019, the Central Bank of Ghana announced the revokement of the licenses of Premium Bank and Heritage Bank.

The governor of  Bank of Ghana, (BoG), Ernest Addison (photo), explained that there were irregularities as far as the licence, the source of capital and the transactions of Heritage Bank are concerned.  

The main shareholder of Heritage Bank is Seidu Agongo, managing director of Agricult Ghana, who is actually being prosecuted along with the former president of the cocobod for "financial crimes that inflicted losses to the country.”  

As far as Premium Bank is concerned, it has been insolvent since December 2017. In addition, this bank has been unable to raise sufficient funds to meet the new minimum capital requirement set at 400 million Ghanaian Cedis ($83 million) by December 31, 2018.

The two banks’ assets have thus been transferred to Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), a banking institution created following the merger of five ailing banks.  

The cancellation of Premium Bank and Heritage Bank’s licenses raises the number of banks affected by the restructuration of the Ghanaian banking sector initiated in 2017 to nine. This painful restructuration reduced the number of commercial banks operating in Ghana from 34 in 2017 to 23.