Court Orders Restoration of GN Bank Licence
The Court of Appeal has directed the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to reinstate GN Bank’s licence.
This overturns a prior High Court decision that had affirmed the revocation of the institution’s operating licence, thereby restoring its status.
The three-member panel ordered that all assets of the bank be returned to their original owners and instructed the Receiver to transfer management of the company back to its former management team immediately.
The ruling represents a significant development in the ongoing legal dispute between GN Bank and the Bank of Ghana over the banking sector clean-up exercise initiated in 2018 programme.
GN Bank was initially reclassified as a savings and loans institution on January 4, 2019, and later renamed GN Savings and Loans Company Limited.
Seven months later, on August 16, 2019, under the leadership of former Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison, the central bank revoked the institution’s operating licence and appointed Eric Nana Nipah as Receiver.
The owners of GN Savings and Loans, led by Papa Kwesi Nduom, challenged the decision at the High Court in Accra on August 30, 2019, describing the revocation as unlawful, malicious and unreasonable.
However, on January 24, 2024, the High Court presided over by Justice Gifty Addo Adjei ruled in favour of the Bank of Ghana.
The court held that governance deficiencies had rendered GN Savings and Loans incapable of meeting its debt obligations and concluded that the company failed to demonstrate that it was solvent when its licence was revoked thereafter.
Justice Addo Adjei also dismissed claims that the Bank of Ghana acted illegally or unfairly, ruling that the regulator’s intervention was lawful and consistent with Article 130 of the 1992 Constitution.
The court further rejected allegations of discrimination, noting that other financial institutions affected by the banking sector reforms were subjected to similar regulatory actions.
Despite the ruling, GN maintained that the revocation breached existing laws and appealed the decision, leading to the latest judgment by the Court of Appeal.
