Mr. Yaw Osei-Aboagye, a financial and economic expert, has backed the government’s decision to offload the Bank of Ghana’s 48 percent shares in the Agricultural Development Bank to Stanbic Bank. Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Thursday, Mr. Aboagye explained that Stanbic Bank, with its experiences in South Africa, had helped in the growth of the economy of South Africa in the agricultural sector through the injection of huge capital by supporting large-scale farms. He described as untenable the argument that Stanbic Bank would seek its interest at the expense of Ghanaian farmers, saying, “the deal does not make them major shareholders in ADB’s sale-out”. Rather, he explained, it would ensure efficiency in the operation of ADB and the long-term development of the country as the strategic investor would be interested in lending money to large-scale farms, which would ensure rapid industrialization and boosting of the country’s economy. He added that the sale-out would even lessen the burden on the Bank of Ghana and prevent conflict of interests, “since the central bank now oversees and monitors the activities of all the banks in the country”. Source: GNA