MONROVIA – Following the November 14, 2023, runoff election that sealed the presidency for Joseph Boakai, the owners of SIB Liberia Limited, without waiting for the newly elected President to officially take office, began engaging him for the payment of a debt the bank claimed to have inherited when it purchased the First International Bank in 2016.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
While this early engagement for the debt payment, which appeared to have been dodged by former President George Weah, raises eyebrows, it is notable that the debt was reportedly acquired during the regime of Boakai’s Unity Party, when he served as Vice President to Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
GN Bank Liberia Limited was licensed by the Central Bank of Liberia in 2016 as part of a Purchase and Assumption Agreement designed to prevent the collapse of the struggling First International Bank Liberia Limited (FIBLL). Under this agreement, GN Bank Liberia Limited assumed FIBLL’s assets and liabilities.
SIBLL is owned by Group Ndoum, part of a chain of businesses owned by renowned Ghanaian businessman and politician Papa Kwesi Ndoum. His immediate request for Boakai’s intervention for the payment of the debt to salvage the bank from going under when Boakai was yet to assume office has left political pundits alleging that the debt payment was part of an agreement between Dr. Ndoum and President Boakai for financial aid he (Boakai) may have received during the 2023 election campaign. The Liberian Investigator has not been able to independently verify this claim.
However, President Boakai, during the height of the election campaign in August 2023, made an impromptu trip to Ghana. The Unity Party suspended its planned campaign activities due to Boakai’s sudden departure at the time. Though it was rumored that he had gone to seek emergency medical attention, pictures of him later emerged on social media showing him to be as fit as a fiddle. The Unity Party campaign team then announced that their standard-bearer had gone to meet some leaders in the ECOWAS region. Other sources said at the time that he had gone to negotiate funding for the campaign.
Right after his inauguration, President Boakai took another trip to Ghana in February. The President then left the country with only a few members of his family. The trip was kept low profile; there were no protocols, and he was not accompanied by any official of the government. The Executive Mansion only issued a press release concerning the President’s trip to Ghana after a public outcry over the manner in which he left the country. Since then, there has been no official update on the purpose of the trip.
In a recent statement following the issuance of a writ of arrest for his alleged involvement in the illegal transfer of over US$1 million from the Central Bank and converting the amount into personal use, the former Minister of Finance & Development Planning, who denies the act and terms the arrest as a “witch-hunt,” alleged that the Boakai administration was instituting the arrest as a tactic to shift focus from the US$8 million transfer made to SIB.
Tweah stated: “… Today, the Unity Party, facing massive allegations of ongoing corruption, including a UP government-sanctioned CBL payment of US$8 million of Liberia reserve money to SIB bank which funded the UP campaign, shamelessly turning a blind eye to mountains of audit reports detailing the gutting of the Liberian Treasury under its 12-year rule, and experiencing very low public rating due to its six-month failures as a Government, has decided to politically witch-hunt me and former officials of the CDC.”
The Liberian Investigator gathered from sources well-seated at the Executive Mansion and the Central Bank of Liberia that pressure on the Central Bank to bail out SIBLL started right after the January 22, 2024, inauguration. Some high-profile individuals at the Executive Mansion and some members of the Board of the Central Bank of Liberia were instrumental in enforcing the payment of the US$8m to the bank.
“This bank was faced with this issue in 2016 before Ellen Johnson Sirleaf could leave power, but she decided not to do anything about it. Then George Weah came – for him, despite all his flaws, he was careful with the IMF and did not want to come into confrontation with them. The IMF’s presence was heavy in the CBL and our reserve could not be touched. To be real with you, the IMF is not happy with this payment,” a source said.
John S. Morlu, Jr., a former Auditor General and the chief fundraiser for Boakai’s campaign team, has also raised several issues with the contentious payment.
Morlu argues that the issue surrounding the debt to the bank raises questions about accountability and punishment for non-repayment. He implied that the situation highlights the pervasive influence of politics, corruption, and inadequate business valuation expertise in Liberia.
According to him, while bank bailouts are common worldwide, they typically require sacrifices from investors and managers, such as equity forfeiture and significant pay cuts (25-50%), asserting that the Central Bank of Liberia should only use taxpayer money to support banks under these conditions.
He expressed that the financial crisis at FIB underscored the broader financial instability of Liberian banks, which are often burdened with bad loans due to political lending. According to him, SIB made a poor investment and its collapse should be allowed as per capitalist principles.
“We challenge the Boakai administration to publish the list of debtors as LBDI did. Let’s clear the air whether Boakai is not a debtor. Transparency and accountability for taxpayers’ US$8 million demand such brutal transparency,” Morlu asserted.
He added, “In Liberia, up to 90% of bank decisions are political, with little regard for sound business practices. For instance, individuals like McGill receive US$200,000 loans on a US$6,000 monthly salary without collateral.”
Morlu, an economist, believes that the SIBLL could not retrieve its loans by taking legal action against defaulters, seizing their assets, and forcing them into bankruptcy to prevent future loan access.
“…Boakai is about to give out a free $8 million to a bank acquired during his vice presidency in 2016, mainly benefiting his boss’s family. This is classic political corruption,” he concluded.
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