The Finance Minister-designate says the over GHC2 million debt owed to Prudential Bank by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been paid.
“It has fully been paid certainly it was in December,” Kenneth Ofori-Atta said amidst smiles.
The co-founder of Data Bank – Ghana’s foremost investment institution – disclosed this when he appeared before Parliament’s Appointments Committee Friday.
NPP has been battling its critics after a leaked document from Prudential Bank revealed the party obtained the sum of ? 2,290,631.36 million loan facility to fund its 2012 campaign.
The money was not paid three years after the NPP lost the 2012 election to the outgone National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.
The Prudential Bank letter addressed to Mr Ofori-Atta in 2015
The Bank wrote to the NPP demanding for the payment of the money, but Mr Ofori-Atta responded saying the loan was a private business transaction he did with the bank. He said the NPP had no part to play in the application of the loan.
“I am personally liable for any obligation that arises from this transaction and not in any way the New Patriotic Party”, he said in a response to the bank in 2015.
According to him, the facility was secured to complement resources the Finance Committee had raised to support the operations of the party’s Polling Agents during the elections.
He said as the Chairman of the NPP 2012 Presidential Campaign Finance Team he had contracted and Guaranteed for purposes of the elections, adding this has nothing to do with the party.
But five years down the line, Mr Ofori-Atta who is one of the respected entrepreneurs in Ghana disclosed to members of the Parliamentary Appointment Committee the money has been paid to the bank.
He said it was paid in December 2016, the month the NPP was declared winners of the presidential poll by the Electoral Commission (EC).
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