According to the document, on January 31, 2014, Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited verified receiving the US$28 million stipulated settlement sum from AFREXIM Bank in favor of Engineers and Planners Company Limited.
“We, Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited, hereby confirm receipt of the negotiated settlement amount of USD 28 million from AFREXIM Bank in favor of Engineers and Planners Company Limited on January 31, 2014, in accordance with Clause 3 of the said Agreement.” We now give you permission to date the Deed of Release and send it, in compliance with the conditions of the Agreement, to AFREXIM Bank.
“We are pleased to inform you that the Bank has indeed received an amount of US$28.0 million through a SWIFT advice dated January 31, 2014, from African Export and Import Bank (AFREXIM Bank) into our Citibank Account #36056153 in full settlement of your indebtedness to Merchant Bank Ghana Limited,” it stated.
In his book “The President Ghana Never Got,” investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has sparked discussions over the 2013 sale of Merchant Bank, which is currently renamed as Universal Merchant Bank (UMB), and the purported participation of Abraham Mahama.
He clarified in the book that there was much debate over the sale of Merchant Bank to the private equity group Fortiz.
Manasseh Azure reported that Fortiz purchased 90% of the bank’s shares for GH¢90 million, while FirstRand Bank of South Africa paid GH¢176 million for 75% of the shares.
He continued by saying that a major portion of Engineers and Planners’ debts, a business owned by Abraham Mahama—the brother of former President John Dramani Mahama—were the reason for the bank’s financial difficulties.
Following these accusations, there were media reports stating that the assertions made in the book are untrue and that Ibrahim Mahama’s attorneys have demanded an apology and retraction from the journalist.
But Manasseh responded in a social media post, saying, “I’ve had calls regarding the rumor that Abraham Mahama has told me seven days to remove pages 89 and 90 of my books because it’s false.
That’s not true. I received a letter from Mr. Abraham Mahama’s attorneys regarding a passage in the book’s economics chapter. According to that passage, Ibrahim Mahama owed Merchant Bank money when it was sold in 2013.
According to his attorneys, the entity that owed the bank was not Abraham Mahama himself, but rather a firm owned by Engineers and Planners. Their demands have been sent to my attorneys, and I will take swift action on the matter.
Here are some pictures of the receipts that illustrate the 2014 payments:
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