French bank Société Générale has received praise from banking specialist Dr. Richmond Atuahene for its decision to leave the Ghanaian market, calling it a wise business decision.
After 20 years of operation, Société Générale has chosen to leave Ghana, joining the exodus from Tunisia and Cameroon.
Dr. Atuahene claims that other banks might decide to follow Société Générale’s lead and attributes the trend to the government’s inability to provide an environment that is favorable for financial institutions to conduct business in.
According to him, the economy will suffer and Ghana’s unemployment rates will rise as a result of international corporations leaving the country.
Moreover, despite claims made by organizations such as the World Bank and IMF, Dr. Atuahene issued a warning that the exit of global conglomerates such as Société Générale indicates a deficiency of significant economic advancement.
What he said:
“It is going to make our unemployment situation worse and you know, SG [Société Générale]has been in the country for twenty years and they have participated in the cocoa syndication and some other businesses but now they are going.
“It means that they are no more there with the cocoa syndication and they are going with their taxes and so we are not going to get corporate taxes from them and so it will affect our fiscal situation.”
“With all the literature that the World Bank and IMF, especially the Bretton Woods institutions saying the economy is turning around, these international banks have strong research departments and they have studied the variables that make economic indications very stable and they have seen it and they know it is not going to happen today or tomorrow. So the earlier they pack their bags, the better for them.”
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