OmniBSIC bank has received 130 million cedis from government through the special purpose vehicle.

Former Sahel Sahara Bank and OminBank merged to form OmniBSIC in 2018 during the banking sector reforms exercise undertaken by the central bank.

It is among the five banks selected to benefit from the intervention.

Speaking to Citi Business News, the Head of Corporate Communications of OmniBSIC, Godwin Ansah, said the bank’s financial strength would now allow it to venture into profitable capital-intensive projects.

“Meeting the Bank of Ghana’s stated capital requirement means a number of things to various stakeholders, the most important being the fact that, OmniBSIC Bank can now support a wide variety of customer transactions, including international transactions because we are bigger and this is especially in relation to the simple obligor limit when it comes to credit,” he said.

“Again, we can provide a vastly improved customer experience at all touch points to our customers and this is made possible because we are now able to invest in better IT and other technological infrastructure which makes banking better and more convenient for our customers, and this is exactly what we have done. We also now offer a rich product and service bouquet including new user-friendly electronic banking product options which are supported by robust electronic platforms,” he added.

This is part of government’s provision to solvent and well-run indigenous banks, which were otherwise having difficulties meeting the new minimum capital requirement deadline to meet their obligations.

Ghana Amalgamated Trust (GAT)

It will be recalled that last year, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, concerned about the difficulties some well-run solvent Ghanaian-owned banks were likely to face in raising capital on their own, set up a committee to explore various options available for these banks in order to retain and strengthen local interest in the banking sector.

Based on the committee’s recommendation, an Advisor was appointed to facilitate the setting up of an SPV: the Ghana Amalgamated Trust (GAT), with the objective of raising funds from the private sector, mainly Pension Funds, to support eligible indigenous banks that successfully completed the due diligence process. Qualifying banks for GAT investment have been determined on the basis of their solvency, local ownership, minimum pre-investment capitalisation of GH?120 million and an independent valuation by PwC.

GAT has committed funds from pension funds and other investors, through a bond programme, with proceeds of up to GH?2.0 billion to be used for equity investment in the eligible indigenous banks, as determined by the investors. The bonds issued to the Pension Funds will be listed on the Ghana Fixed Income Market (GFIM) for liquidity purposes.

The following banks are the beneficiaries of the GAT programme: Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), National Investment Bank (NIB), OmniBank Ghana Limited / Bank Sahel Sahara Ghana (OmniBank / BSIC), Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) and Prudential Bank.

In addition to providing capital for these banks, GAT also seeks to provide business development support in order to facilitate the strengthening of these banks both from a perspective of corporate governance and growth.