Businessman Seidu Agongo has said he believes the immediate past Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Ernest Addison, collapsed Heritage Bank, of which he (Agongo) owned 70 per cent shares, as part of a grand scheme by the government at the time to target and weaken him.

In his view, even though, in principle, the central bank is independent of the executive arm of government, he was acting on the orders of his appointer to realise a desire.

He explained that the structure of appointments in the country was such that appointees were almost at the beck and call of the government of the day, making it easier for those with ill intentions to be used to achieve political agenda.

Mr Agongo acknowledged that even though the Central Bank is “supposed to” be independent of the government, it is not in “reality.” 

He insisted: “Whoever appoints you holds the key to your actions,” noting: “And that doesn’t work.”

Mr Agongo further argued: “The basic concept of appointments makes the BoG not to be independent,” explaining: “How do I appoint you and you say you’ll be independent? You’ll do whatever I ask you to do.”

With that foundation, Mr Agongo asserted: “They were asked to nail me.” 

He wondered: “You collapse my bank because I just have a case in court, not that verdict has been given against me. What do you think about that? You collapse an institution, a business entity created by a private person who has gone through the processes, gotten a licence to establish and employed Ghanaians who are working there because the owner has a case in court. Does it sound well?”

In the no-holds-barred interview following the recent discontinuation of a financial loss case against him and the former CEO of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr Stephen Opuni, Mr Agongo also took strong exception to the “not fit and proper” description used by Dr Addison, who retired recently, as the basis for the revocation of his bank’s licence. 

“Not fit and proper means that the standard that they use to judge human beings, I don’t fit that and I reject that.

That’s very insulting, to be very honest with you. It’s so insulting,” he complained, adding: “How do you tell a businessman who started his business at the age of 16, having imported rice, imported sugar; I wake up at 4 AM and go to work only to establish a corporate institution for you to come and tell me I’m not fit and proper?

Where is this English coming from?

That is why I said I could have taken the money outside but I believe that God knows why I was created here in Ghana, so, why don’t I use the resources to build Ghana? So, at the end of the day, if I had invested somewhere else, would you have even known me let alone describe me as not fit and proper? No.” 

Mr Agongo, who owns several businesses in the food, pharmaceutical, real estate, agrochemical, and media sectors under the umbrella of the Zeera Group of Companies, continued: “If I’m not fit and proper, why were you asking me to merge with other banks.

The same bank that was not fit and proper, why were you asking us to merge with other banks?”

Challenged to prove that claim, he responded: “You can ask Addison, you can verify.”

Asked if he harboured bitterness about the collapse of his bank, Mr Agongo answered: “I’m bitter,” but clarified: “My bitterness is not based on myself because I’m very humble and I’m content. Even today, if I don’t have a car but I have a bicycle, I’ll ride it. I’m a very content person, but I’m bitter because Heritage Bank would’ve given all the banks in Ghana a competition that they could never match.

Have you entered any of our branches before? It all came out of planning because the major success of a business is not what you see. It’s the planning that was done behind the scenes.”

According to Mr Agongo, his prosecution in the COCOBOD case, “had nothing to do” with the revocation of his bank’s licence. 

“Go to the central bank now and say you want to open a bank.

They will check the source of your funding.

They even wrote a letter to COCOBOD to find out that I said I had this amount of money pending. COCOBOD responded.

They went to my school – Adonten Secondary School – to check on my history and my record.

They went to Labone SHS to check. All these things were systematically checked, and in all, I was ticked positive. So, at what point did I become ‘not fit and proper’?

At the point of a change of government, or you see me as belonging to a particular government?” he asked. 

Despite all that he has been through, Mr Agongo said: “I always see anything that happens as it’s meant to happen. I don’t begrudge things that happen. Inasmuch as it may be hurtful, I feel like, ‘Ok, this is what has happened. What do I do to face the reality?’ They’ve revoked the licence. What did I do wrong? I don’t know!” 

The central bank revoked Heritage Bank;s licence on Friday, 4 January 2019 on the basis that Mr Agongo, who was the majority shareholder, used proceeds realised from alleged fraudulent contracts he executed for the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), for which he and Dr Opuni stood trial at the time.

Announcing the withdrawal of the licence, Dr Addison told journalists – when asked if he did not deem the action as premature, since the COCOBOD case was still in court – that: “The issue of Heritage Bank, I wanted to get into the law with you, I don’t know if I should, but we don’t need the court’s decision to take the decisions that we have taken.

We have to be sure of the sources of capital to license a bank; if we have any doubt, if we feel that it’s suspicious, just on the basis of that we find that that is not acceptable as capital.

We don’t need the court to decide for us whether anybody is ‘fit and proper’, just being involved in a case that involves a criminal procedure makes you not fit and proper”.

Heritage Bank was later added to Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited (CBG), which was first formed when the central bank collapsed some five local banks in August 2018. 

They included The Royal Bank, The Beige Bank, The Construction Bank, Sovereign Bank and uniBank. Later on, HBL and Premium Bank were added to the first five.

Reacting to the reasons for the revocation of the licence, Mr Agongo said: “All these things [reasons given by the BoG] I don’t know where they are coming from but I see them as: ‘They wanted something to just use against me’ because Bank of Ghana has been in existence for how long now? I’m a private person, and I applied and had the licence. I’m not the regulator. I’m a businessman who thinks of the fact that: ‘Ok, banking is a sector that I can grow in the sub-region.’ Look at Nigerian banks.

They are almost everywhere. Can you count any Ghanaian bank anywhere? No. I’m not the regulator, I applied: ‘I want a banking licence.’ You brought your conditions, I met each one.

BoG has a forensic unit that defines who becomes ‘fit and proper’. You don’t just take any money to the Bank of Ghana, and they give you a banking licence. Whatever you tell them, they check.

So, after checking and giving me the licence, within a year, you now come and tell me that I’m not fit and proper. Which English is this? When we do this, we kill the soul of the basic foundation of the economy because I could have taken the money to Dubai, Guyana.

I could have gone to establish something somewhere – even Nigeria, even Togo.”

He maintained that the BoG crushed his dream of building a continental brand that would have competed with international banks in and outside of Ghana.

“I maintain that because we, humans, are strong beings, but we are limiting ourselves.

We are very strong.

What you think of, what you plan, what you work for, you can achieve.

I don’t see why StanChart will grow to Ghana, Nigeria, and Abidjan and Ghanaian banks can’t expand. So, when I set up my bank, if you looked at the structure of my board, I constituted a board that can stand the test of time – a strong board.

At the time, I even applied for a loan, and they [the board of my own bank] rejected it and I didn’t have any problem with them because they were doing their work.

Because if you look at Alex Ashiagbor, ex-Governor of the Bank of Ghana, a board member; Dr Kwesi Botchwey, Benson Nutsukpui – these are all people who stand out in Ghana.” 

“Why would they be part of the board of a bank whose licence was fraudulently acquired?

They would have done their checks because everything was there. After all, if you say I’m not fit and proper, am I mentally [deranged]?

What do you mean?

Not fit and proper means that I don’t even deserve to sit here and talk to you,” Mr Agongo said.