Fortiz Fortified Part 1!
Some of us have intentionally closed our otherwise discerning eyes to the inherent meaning of the phenomenal growth of our now oil-denominated economy.
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It was a senior advisor to former President Kufuor who said, to howls of protest from the ideologically-inclined, with oil, this country would soon boast its own millionaires. The growing wealth of the country would be controlled and directed to desired development ends by whichever government happens to be in power at any time.
The significance of party politics in this scenario would be the affirmation of their respective ideologies in the policy choices they choose to pursue with the revenue that comes to hand. We must remember that the business of government is perpetual; leaders shall always be needed to lead and direct the spending of our collective wealth.
In this regard, we have the ironic scenario of the government of President Mahama of the National Democratic Congress stoutly defending in court, as I write, the sale of Ghana Telecom to Vodafone in the time of President Kufuor.
NDC party stalwarts vehemently opposed this sale in the 2008 election year, but it is the identifiable satraps of the CPP, who took the government to court to challenge the legality and propriety of the sale of this strategic national asset to a foreign company.
Individuals who find themselves in government may find themselves defending things they had earlier opposed on political platforms because it has fallen on them to run our collective affairs.
For my part, I find this particular transaction repugnant on two grounds: The sale to a foreign interest of our primary telecommunication asset is indefensible on the grounds of national security and patriotism and secondly, why did President Kufuor approve the transaction supposed to last for 99 years when our constitution states clearly that no foreigner can own property in this country for more than 50 years at a time?
This particular provision first entered our basic law in the Second Republican Constitution of 1969, which had Dr Busia as the Prime Minister and in which President Kufuor was the Deputy Foreign Minister. It appears some of us have no qualms surrendering our patrimony to outsiders to own and manage for us.
I agree that some of us, weaned on decades of a welfare government, have closed our eyes and ears to the basic issue of the necessity for our governments to earn the monies we require to develop ourselves. This is an inescapable burden we require of our leaders to do their very best to carry.
Enter a wholly-owned Ghanaian private equity fund, Fortiz, which has acquired Merchant Bank, following the decision of the majority shareholder, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust, (SSNIT), to offload its interest, pursuant to the necessary approvals from the regulator, the Bank of Ghana.
Objections have been raised to this completed transaction, rather surprising ones indeed. I remember, with wry amusement, the repeated statements by the then Finance Minister in the early 1980s to the need for ‘sincere and honest businessmen,’ as if the business of business is conducted by unctuous Quakers.
Is it possible for some of us, parroting our patriotism, to be backing foreign bids for a local asset when our growing economy demands we build a local capacity to handle, own and manage large transactions? Is the regulator supposed to dither forever in the disposal of this asset to suit the whims and caprices of bidders who are found incapable, in the professional estimation of the regulator, to meet its concerns?
Or, God forbid, we are all skirting the issue of fellow Ghanaians who are enraged and sickened by the thought that other Ghanaians have been able to secure approval so that this asset remains in our country, to benefit, primarily, Ghanaians in the form of jobs, taxes and business expertise?
I am led this way by the strange fascination with the debt profile of the bank, as if that alone is enough to decide matters one way or the other. Is America not still the world leader in wealth-creation, in spite of the downgrading of its public finances this year by the same institutions which has downgraded us?
The so-called principal debtor has not announced anywhere that he would not satisfy his creditors, but it seems the whole debate is being conducted on the basis that we are going to lose our SSNIT monies. SSNIT itself warned us that it is incapable of resolving matters to the satisfaction of everybody.
Bad faith or maladies have seized and gripped some of us like incurable convulsions because that debtor is the company of Ibrahim Mahama, brother to the President.
It is rank maladies that have compelled some of us to question this transaction to overlook the name of Emmanuel Botchwey of Regimanuel Grey Real Estate in the list of limited partners in the Fortiz Fund, which has taken over the bank. The celebrated realtor’s presence in the fund alone is worth several times over the stated value of the bank, and very solid comfort to me as a citizen that we are safe.
Those of us who are railing against this transaction have failed to show, because they cannot, that the present transaction can be bettered. The resort to derisory claims about the flouting of the rules guiding the notorious Divestiture Implementation Committee is proof that relevance is not part of the disagreements holding sway.
One person, who shall for now remain unnamed, believes that the problems of the bank have been caused by bad management, in view of the fact that another state bank, the National Investment Bank (NIB), is in direr straits than Merbank, but who is urging the government to rid itself of NIB?
We must realise that our growing economy requires that we learn to own and manage the increasingly large transactions that will naturally come our way. With this in mind, our attitudes must undergo the change we need to be truly independent.
