Nobody is saying a development bank is the same as a commercial bank. Nobody is saying a Development will take deposit like commercial banks. Nobody is saying there are no development banks in Nigeria, Sudan and the others.
All people are saying is there is no activity to be financed by the yet to be established Development bank that commercial banks do not support in Ghana. It is a lie to think that the yet to be established development bank is the first bank ever established in Ghana to focus on development finance unless one has not read the Acts that established both NIB and Adb.
The deposit taken arrangement of NIB and Adb has never exempted them from finance development and the areas the Development bank will focus on. The discussion about development bank is not an issue of mere definition but portfolio of activities and how these activities are delivered.
What Ghanaians are saying is simple. Why disable NIB and Adb in securing such supports for their development finance mandates .
Nobody is questioning the fact that a development bank is expected to finance medium to long term projects, programs and activities from both public and private sectors at relatively lower cost of borrowing.
A development bank will play a vital role in financing selected projects but cannot be hyped institution to deliver broad based lower interest rates and access to funding for the entire private sector needs.
Is a development bank relevant? Yes but just as we set up EXIMbank we still struggle to finance imports-exports , a development bank cannot do all.
Nobody can vouch for zero political interference that has been the bane and destroyer of all national assets.
It is mere emotion to think that the the development bank will reduce the existing commercial banks to nothing when it comes to support the private sector. Some of the commercial banks will continue to deliver on lending facilities at competitive rates with the development bank. Hence the call by Ghanaians to support adb and NIB banks should not be misconstrued to mean people don’t understand the difference between a commercial bank and a development bank.
It is an established fact that NIB and Adb were established to finance strategic development in both public and private sectors .