Ghanaian multimillionaire Papa Kwesi Nduom wants to buy Standard Chartered's local retail business

Papa Kwesi Nduom wants back in the banking business, and he has identified his target. The founder and chairman of Groupe Nduom has disclosed that his conglomerate is exploring the possibility of acquiring Standard Chartered Bank Ghana's retail banking operations, just days after the British lender announced plans to exit that segment of its Ghanaian business as part of a global portfolio review.

Speaking to JoyBusiness via WhatsApp from the United States, Nduom said Groupe Nduom is actively assessing the opportunity and could list the new entity on the Ghana Stock Exchange if the acquisition is successful, an outcome that would make a Standard Chartered Ghana retail book the foundation for what could become one of the country's most watched capital markets listings.

On Facebook, Nduom went further. He did not just say he wanted the business. He said who should get it. "Make no mistake about this: if Standard Chartered is selling its retail banking business, the buyer should be an indigenous Ghanaian company." He called on the Bank of Ghana to prioritise indigenous investors in the sale process, framing the opportunity explicitly as a moment of national importance rather than simply a commercial transaction.

Standard Chartered PLC announced on June 25, 2026, that it intends to explore a sale of its Wealth and Retail Banking business in Ghana following a strategic portfolio review. The London-headquartered bank said the decision reflects a broader strategy to concentrate resources in markets and client segments where it has greater scale and competitive advantage. The Corporate and Investment Banking business in Ghana is not affected and will continue to operate normally through Standard Chartered's international network. Any transaction remains subject to regulatory approval, and the bank's management has told customers the process is expected to take between 18 and 24 months. Managing Director Xorse Augustine Godzi has been engaging clients directly since the announcement to reassure them that deposits remain safe and banking services will continue uninterrupted throughout the transition.

For Nduom, the Standard Chartered opportunity is a return to territory he once occupied at significant scale. His GN Bank grew from its founding in 2008 into the bank with the largest branch network in Ghana, eventually operating 260 branches in Ghana and across multiple countries including Ivory Coast, Antigua, Zimbabwe, Puerto Rico and the United States, before the Bank of Ghana withdrew its licence in 2019 as part of the country's banking sector cleanup. The regulator found GN Bank unable to meet the minimum paid-up capital requirement of GH¢400 million. GN Savings and Loans continues to operate under the Groupe Nduom umbrella. Nduom has maintained that the government owes his group and its subsidiaries more than GH¢7 billion, a claim that has never been formally resolved.

His willingness to step forward publicly and declare interest in the Standard Chartered retail book is consistent with a business philosophy he has articulated consistently throughout his career: that Ghanaian-owned institutions should control strategically important segments of the country's economy rather than ceding them to foreign operators who may exit when global portfolio logic demands it. Standard Chartered's Ghana retail exit is precisely the kind of moment that argument is designed for. A 130-year-old institution is stepping back from serving ordinary Ghanaian retail customers. Nduom is saying a Ghanaian company should be the one to take its place.

Whether Groupe Nduom has the capital and regulatory standing to complete a transaction of this kind will be the central question the Bank of Ghana and any formal sale process will need to answer. Standard Chartered Ghana's retail book includes deposits, loan portfolios, branch infrastructure and a wealth management platform built over more than a century of operations in the country. Acquiring it would require capital commitment, regulatory approval and a credible operational plan to absorb a customer base accustomed to international banking standards. Nduom's group has demonstrated the ability to build banking infrastructure at scale. Whether the regulatory and financial conditions are in place to do it again is a different question, and one the Bank of Ghana will ultimately decide.