Bright Simons, a Vice President of IMANI Africa, has blown an alarm on the Attorney General, Dr Dominic Ayine, over his decision to discontinue the Duffuor case after recovering a 60 per cent Unibank liability.
The IMANI Africa emphasised that the A-G actually recovered only 10.6% of the Unibank liability, not 60%.
According to Bright Simons, the terms of the settlement, the Unibank actors were to pay back 60% of their estimated liability, which had also proven controversial.
Bright Simon asserted that he is dissatisfied with the AG’s analysis of the public finance element of the situation.
Part of Bright Simons’ long post on X read, “ The claim that the ‘fictitious entries’ entered in Unibank’s books do not amount to liability on their own confuses the issues. I do not accept that this is an honest assessment of the situation. The fictitious entries masked the fact that monies borrowed from the public (depositors) and creditors (BoG and other banks) could not be properly accounted for. What is important is to ACCOUNT.
On 31st July 2018, a day before the license revocation, the main shareholder of Unibank wrote an important letter which captures the liability “acceptable” to him and other shareholders. That number represents the minimum floor as one would assume that the shareholders will maximise their interests in any negotiation.
The losses to the country emanating from the Unibank saga exceed even the GHS 5.7 billion the previous government was pursuing”.
Bright Simon further delved into the UniBank matters, “In the July 31st 2018 letter, Unibank’s owners admitted direct liability of GHS 4.9 billion. See the extract from the letter attached. If so, how does the liability now get revised to GHS 3.3 billion? In fact, at that time, Unibank said it was willing for its assets to be liquidated for injection into the bank at a forced sale value of GHS 3.52 billion ($730 million).
The Bank of Ghana alone owed over GHS 2.8 billion. However, Unibank had offsetting claims amounting to ~GHS 600m, bringing the net liability to ~GHS 2.2 billion. The current settlement does not even cover this amount.
By May 2018, KPMG-validated liabilities of Unibank amounted to nearly GHS 9.2 billion. That is to say $2 billion made up of customer deposits, BoG liquidity support, and corporate borrowings, among others. Whilst Unibank owners have repeatedly argued that they were also owed a lot of money by the government, through contractors, their own claims amounted to less than $200 million”.
He added, “Now, here is the key issue. The basic equation of finance is that liabilities must be offset by shareholder funds and assets, which in the case of banks mean good LOANS. Thus if we assume that the government’s debt (DDEP notwithstanding) is prudent lending and therefore a good asset, we must account for roughly $1.8 billion more of WHERE THE UNIBANK MONEY WENT.
We know from KPMG’s extensive work that nearly $400 million that Unibank loaned to companies belonging to Unibank’s owners never came back.
Of nearly $600 million loaned out to other companies, between half and 75% was deemed unrecoverable by KPMG.
As every reader can see, there is a big CAPITAL HOLE. Nearly $1.8 billion large. First, there is the ~$800 million of deposits by ordinary Ghanaians and companies that went to Unibank. Then, over $400 million of BoG money. Plus another $600 million borrowed from various other banks and lenders.
The government’s settlement of $80 million in cash and $120 million in as yet undisclosed properties (even using BoG exchange rates) is thus nowhere near accounting for the liability”.
Bright Simon further detailed, “It is important to remember that the government assumed most of that liability. First, by way of covering for the deposits through the set-up of CBG, a state-owned bank. And, second, by way of BoG absorbing the losses in its liquidity support. So far, the country has not been told whether the other debts accumulated by Unibank have been cleared or not. But those debts are losses too.
Even the liability that the former owners of Unibank themselves admit they are responsible for, over $1 billion, has not been covered in this “settlement”. As of May 2018, the KPMG’s view of the gap of money unaccounted for was $1.5 billion.
Thus, if we use market exchange rates, the government has “recovered” $160 million of a liability that may well exceed $1.5 billion (the receiver and BoG should update the nation). That is barely 10.6% of the total LOSSES TO GHANA’s welfare! Even that $160 million is suspect because, from the AG’s explanations, they are likely to be debt owed to contractors by the same government. It is important to re-emphasise that the deal cut by the government is only 21% of what Unibank’s owners themselves admitted was their liability to the bank on July 31st, 2025”.
Mr Simon noted that in any serious country, the press conference of the AG on July, 28,2025, would be the BEGINNING, not the end, of the national debate about how Ghana tackles national financial losses involving the rich and powerful in society.
He further quizzed whether Ghana is a serious country. Or a katanomic society?
See the full post below:
The AG has recovered 10.6% of the Unibank Liability NOT 60%
1. On 22nd July 2025, the Attorney General of Ghana (AG) announced that he had reached an agreement with the owners of the collapsed Unibank who were under prosecution commenced by the previous government for financial… pic.twitter.com/cRGvXwTwuL
— Bright Simons (@BBSimons) July 28, 2025
