The Court of Appeal has instructed the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to restore GN Bank’s licence, reversing an earlier High Court decision that backed the withdrawal of the financial institution’s operating permit.
The three-judge panel also ordered that all the bank’s assets be given back to its original owners and directed the Receiver to return control of the company to its former management team.
The decision is a major turn in the protracted legal fight between GN Bank and the Bank of Ghana over the disputed 2018 banking sector clean-up exercise. GN Bank was first downgraded to a savings and loans company on January 4, 2019, and later renamed GN Savings and Loans Company Limited.
Seven months later, on August 16, 2019, under former Bank of Ghana Governor, Ernest Addison, the central bank cancelled the company’s operating licence and named Eric Nana Nipah as Receiver.
Owners of GN Savings and Loans, led by Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, contested the move at the Accra High Court on August 30, 2019, calling the revocation illegal, malicious and unreasonable.
But on January 24, 2024, the High Court, led by Justice Gifty Addo Adjei, sided with the Bank of Ghana. The court found that governance weaknesses had left GN Savings and Loans unable to meet its debt obligations and said the company failed to show it was solvent when its licence was withdrawn.
Justice Addo Adjei also threw out claims that the Bank of Ghana acted unlawfully or unfairly, ruling that the regulator’s action was legal and in line with Article 130 of the 1992 Constitution.
The court further dismissed claims of bias, noting that other financial institutions impacted by the banking sector reforms faced similar regulatory measures. Despite the verdict, GN insisted the revocation violated existing laws and filed an appeal, resulting in the latest ruling by the Court of Appeal.
