The Bank of Sierra Leone’s decision to liquidate the Union Trust Bank, the country’s only privately owned indigenous financial institution, has caused an uproar, with shareholders alleging the central bank intentionally ignored their rescue plans to engineer a foreign buyout.
While the central bank cited insolvency for the closure, critics and shareholders argue that local rescue packages were deliberately ignored to clear the path for a foreign acquisition.
Dr David Matsanga, a political analyst, strongly criticised the government’s failure to step in and save the local institution, suggesting that the move mirrors a wider continental vulnerability where domestic assets are undervalued to benefit external buyers.
“The shareholders placed the documents to rescue their bank, but someone wants to sell this,” Matsanga stated. “Why can’t the government come in to help the local private owner to raise the capital that is needed? Instead, an international bank is waiting in the wings to swallow this privately owned entity.”
The closure has raised serious questions among analysts regarding investment confidence and the protection of domestic capital within Sierra Leone’s broader financial sector.
–ChannelAfrica–
