Engineers & Planners Company Limited (E&P) has settled its outstanding debt of $28 million to Merchant Bank.
According to sources close to the deal, the payment, made last Friday, represents the total amount owed Merchant Bank by Ibrahim Mahama, a brother to President John Dramani Mahama.
The amount was transferred by Afrexim Bank to the offshore account of Merchant Bank through Citi Bank N.A., New York.
The move has been commended by market watchers who believe it will help improve the financial position of the bank, which has been through trying times recently as a result of some huge debts.
It would be recalled that Merchant Bank Ghana Limited gave a 21-day ultimatum to its known debtors through an advertisement in the newspapers on Tuesday, January 14, 2013, a week after President Mahama tasked the bank to form a task force to go after its debtors.
The defaulters were required to settle all their indebtedness to the bank from the date the advertisement was published in the newspapers.
The new management of the bank, led by Niila Selormey, said it was determined to recover the monies, regardless of the personalities involved.
The bank stated that failure by the debtors to honour their debt obligations would compel Merban Assets Recovery Trust (MART), its subsidiary to publish their names and the amounts of money they owed it after a grace period of five working days from the deadline indicated in the advertisement.
Fortiz Private Equity Fund announced that it was the legal and registered owner of 90 per cent shares of Merchant Bank.
Fortiz made full payment for shares of Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited by the transfer of funds held at the Bank of Ghana into the operating account of Merchant Bank (Ghana) Limited.
The remaining 10 percent shares of the bank are split between SSNIT and SIC Life, which respectively own 8.96 percent
and 1.04 percent.
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