The Court of Appeal has unanimously reinstated the licence of GN Savings and Loans Company Limited.
Following the ruling of a three-member panel, the High Court’s decision to uphold the license revocation was overturned. The panel deemed the original decision to revoke the license as unfair and unjust.
The verdict issued by the Second Highest Court annulled both the prior ruling to revoke the license and the High Court’s decision to uphold that ruling.
The court also directed the receiver to maintain and hand over control assets and other activities to its previous management.
This ruling marks a significant milestone in the protracted legal dispute between GN Savings and Loans and the Bank of Ghana over the contentious banking sector clean-up project which was started in 2018 where a number of indigenous banks collapsed because they could not meet the minimum threshold to be classified as a bank.
GN Savings and Loans transitioned to a savings and loans company on January 4, 2019, and was later renamed GN Savings and Loans Company Limited.
On August 16, 2019, seven months later, the central bank, led by former Bank of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison, took decisive action by revoking the company’s operating licence and appointing Eric Nana Nipah as Receiver.
The proprietors of GN Savings and Loans, spearheaded by Papa Kwesi Nduom, contested the judgment before the High Court in Accra, alleging the revocation as unconstitutional, spiteful and irrational.
But the High Court, chaired over by Justice Gifty Addo Adjei, on January 24, 2024, ruled against GN Savings and Loans Limited.
Despite the earlier ruling, GN argued that the revocation of the license was inconsistent with existing laws and persisted in seeking a more favorable judgment, resulting in this latest ruling.
