Sources known to The High Street Journal indicate that the Bank of Ghana is considering an appeal to the Supreme Court of Ghana following Thursday’s Court of Appeal decision restoring the operating licence of GN Savings and Loans Company Limited.
The move, if pursued, would place the dispute before the country’s apex court for a final determination on the legality of the revocation of the company’s licence during the financial sector clean up exercise.
On Thursday morning, a unanimous three member panel of the Court of Appeal overturned an earlier High Court ruling that had upheld the Bank of Ghana’s revocation decision. The appellate court held that the revocation was unfair and unreasonable, and consequently set aside both the Central Bank’s decision and the High Court judgment affirming it.
The court also ordered the receiver to hand over possession, management and control of the company’s assets and operations to its shareholders.
Under Ghana’s constitutional framework, the Supreme Court is, per article 131 of the 1992 Constitution, the final appellate court, and decisions of the Court of Appeal in civil matters which began at the High Court may be appealed to it as of right. This means the Bank of Ghana remains legally entitled to challenge the ruling before the apex court if it chooses to proceed.
Under the Supreme Court rules governing civil appeals, a notice of appeal is generally required to be filed within three months from the date of the Court of Appeal’s judgment. With the ruling delivered yesterday, the Bank of Ghana would ordinarily have until approximately late August 2026 to invoke the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
Even after the expiration of that period, an intending appellant may still apply for extension of time to file the appeal out of time, although the application must itself be made within the three months window and grant of such relief lies within the discretion of the court.
The dispute traces back to August 2019 when the Bank of Ghana revoked the licence of GN Savings and Loans Company Limited, formerly GN Bank Limited, during the banking sector reforms undertaken under former Governor Dr Ernest Addison.
The decision was challenged by Groupe Nduom, led by Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, which maintained that the revocation was unlawful. In January 2024, the High Court in Accra upheld the regulator’s action, holding that the institution’s financial condition and governance deficiencies justified the revocation.
That judgment has now been overturned by the Court of Appeal, setting the stage for what could become another major financial sector case before the Supreme Court.
