Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited says it will not relent in its efforts to acquire a strategic stake in the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB). According to the Managing Director of the bank, whose parent bank is the largest in Africa, Alhassan Andani, Stanbic Bank Ghana is still interested in own¬ing a significant stake in ADB. Reacting to the Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu's interview with CITY &BUSINESS GUIDE that government had not ruled out the possibility of selling some of its shares in ADB on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), Mr. Andani said his outfit would acquire a substantial stake in any amount of shares issued out when an initial public offer (IPO) begins. He explained further to CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE that Stanbic Ghana was committed to enhancing agricultural financing, thus its interest in ADB. Mr. Baah-Wiredu had reemphasized in the 2008 budget as stipulated in the 2007 budget too that it would resort to the stock market to offload its shares in state-owned firms as a form of encouraging public participation in them. The move, according to him was to encourage listing of other private companies on the GSE as well as creating a vibrant stock market to finance business expansions in the country. The sale of ADB, which is a tier one bank, by government to a strategic investor sparked protests from workers of the bank, interest groups such as the Trade Union Congress (TUC), farmers and civil society groups who believed the bank, formed by an Act of Parliament, should remain in the hands of Ghanaians or it would lose its core functions since the three foreign banks who expressed interest might change the operations of the bank. They however insisted that government should offload the shares on the Accra Bourse. Mr. Andani maintained that his outfit was ready to serve the interest of farmers by providing credits at low interest rates with practical maturity periods in order to support viable projects. On the protest by the Association of Indigenous Banks as regards the increase in minimum capital requirement of universal banks, Mr. Andani said for financial intermediaries in Ghana to compete for bigger transactions globally, there was the need to increase the capital requirement. He noted that the increment had been long overdue, adding that the financial asset of Intercontinental Bank Plc alone was bigger than the financial assets of all the 24 universal banks in the country. Source: Daily Guide