An economist at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Professor Lord Mensah says if the banking space is compromised, the economy will collapse.

He made this known in an interview on Newsfile on Saturday, August 20, 2022, to host Samson Lardy Anyenini.

According to Prof. Mensah, Ghana's economy is a banking-dominated one, hence, the need to protect it.

“Banks as they exist, they play a major role in every economy. If we compromise the banking space, this economy will collapse.

“It’s a banking-dominated economy unlike the US where the financial market dominates. So effectively, it is an area that we need to protect,” he said.

Prof. Mensah said a lot of money is being spent in the banking space without looking at the assets that accompany the banks.

He further explained that every bank has assets and liabilities on its balance sheet - and that when the bank is being taken over, the assets and liabilities must be made available.

“Now banks, if you look on their balance sheet, they all have assets and liabilities. As a receiver, you suppose to take both assets and liabilities.

“So at the point where the banks were being taken over, what were the assets they had and what were the liabilities?, he asked.

The economist explained that most of the banks registered themselves as entities that have their own operations, and that is the reason banks are facing some crisis.

Commenting on the 10 million grant which was given to the Executive Director of the Economic and Organized Crimes Office (EOCO), Prof Mensah said he does not know why the money delayed when it was being extended to an entity that will help to unravel what transpired in the banking sector.

"Looking at the 10 million that is being extended to EOCO, I asked myself, so all this while, what were we waiting for to extend the 10 million facility to an entity that is going to help us unravel what went on in that space".

He explained that a lot of money is sometimes spent to unravel situations and he is hoping that the money which has been extended to EOCO will yield a positive result.

"Unfortunately for us, we normally hear about monies that are spent to rescue situations. We normally hear monies that are spent to unravel something that becomes a criminal case but at the end of the day, we don't get anything out of it.

"So I'm hoping that this 10 million that has been injected to EOCO, we should be able to get something out of it, and then whatever the state is going to lose as a result of this clean-up, from the investigations they will do, we should be able to know that too."