Ghana’s Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has increased its shares in Societe Generale Ghana to 24.36% after securing an additional 5% shares in the bank following the recent sale of the bank to a Moroccan bank.
Societe Generale announced that it has offloaded all of its 60.22% shares in its Ghana operations to Attijariwafa Bank of Morocco and SSNIT. In that sale, Attijariwafa acquired 55.22% of the shares, and the remaining 5% went to SSNIT.
Prior to the acquiring the additional 5%, SSNIT held 19.36% shares in the bank. But now it shares is up to 24.36%.
A statement from SSNIT, welcoming the increased stake, said it is grateful to the government, particularly the finance minister, for his instrumentality in securing the additional stake.
According to SSNIT, the increased shareholding significantly strengthens its investment on behalf of Ghanaian workers and pensioners, and also enhances its position to safeguard and grow contributors’ retirement assets while supporting the long-term development and stability of the bank.
“The transaction also advances greater Ghanaian participation in the banking sector by increasing local ownership in a major financial institution,” it said. “This reflects the importance of ensuring that workers in Ghana, pensioners and institutions benefit more directly from the growth and performance of the country’s financial sector.”
Meanwhile, an earlier communication from Societe Generale Group indicated that the completion of the transaction is dependent of a the fulfilment of some regulatory requirements.
But the net result of the sale is that Societe Generale is exiting Ghana, and in its place, Attijariwafa Bank will assume full control of its assets and operations in Ghana.
Islamic connections
Attijariwafa is a Moroccan commercial bank with an Islamic banking subsidiary called Bank Assafa.Â
That fact is fuelling speculation that the bank is interested in Ghana because of the recent approval of non-interest banking policy rolled out by the Bank of Ghana, which is consistent with the Islamic Sharia principles.
But Techfocus24 learnt from very reliable sources that discussions between Societe Generale and Attijariwafa Bank predates the implementation of the non-interest banking policy in Ghana.
According to the sources, negotiations has been in the works since the time of the previous government, but only recently go the greenlight. So, there could not have been any link with the non-interest banking policy recently implemented in Ghana.
Meanwhile, another matter of concern is the usual loss jobs and redundancy issues that come with such transactions. But again, Techfocus24 gathered that there is relative calm among workers at SG Ghana, as the sale is not likely to impact jobs.
