A dispute over the Economic and Organised Crime Office's (EOCO) attempt to arrest Manhyia South Member of Parliament (MP) and private legal practitioner Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah has brought the troubled Equity Savings and Loans Limited back into the spotlight. The investigation is connected to legal work his firm carried out for SIC Life Savings and Loans Company Limited in an attempt to recover millions of cedis from Equity Savings and Loans. EOCO says it attempted to arrest Baffour Awuah after he failed to honour two invitations issued in February 2026.
According to the MP, SIC Life Savings and Loans had invested approximately GH¢3.5 million with Equity Savings and Loans, which defaulted in payment, and with accumulated interest, the obligation eventually rose to roughly GH¢14 million. His law firm was then instructed to recover the money. The lawyers sued Equity and eventually obtained summary judgment against the company. However, enforcing the judgment became extremely difficult because the lawyers struggled to identify assets belonging to Equity that could be attached.
The recovery effort dragged on for about two years, during which Equity made payments amounting to more than GH¢1 million. A breakthrough came when the lawyers received information that Equity had land at Oyibi which could potentially be attached to satisfy the judgment. However, after they moved against the property, another company appeared in court claiming Equity had already sold the land to it. SIC's lawyers prepared to litigate the ownership claim, but the company claiming the land instead sought a negotiated resolution.
The disclosure matters because Equity Savings and Loans was already the subject of serious concerns months before the latest EOCO controversy. In June, numerous customers said they had been unable to access money deposited with the institution, with some branches closed and customers reporting repeated difficulties withdrawing their funds. A subsequent investigation found branches in East Legon, Dome and New Town closed during verification visits.
Equity Savings and Loans is still listed by the Bank of Ghana as a licensed savings and loans company despite the complaints and apparent inactivity at some of its premises. That makes Baffour Awuah's latest account significant beyond his personal dispute with EOCO. If his narration is accurate, an institutional creditor seeking millions of cedis from Equity had to obtain a court judgment, spend roughly two years looking for assets and ultimately negotiate a settlement.
For ordinary customers who say they remain unable to access their savings, that history raises an obvious question: what assets remain available to meet Equity's other obligations? What happened to Equity's assets? The central issue remains recovery. The new information emerging from Baffour Awuah's account now adds another dimension: years before depositors publicly described their difficulties, another financial institution was itself struggling through the courts to recover a substantial obligation from Equity.
EOCO has not publicly laid out the full substance of its investigation. There are also competing allegations about the transactions being investigated. The MP's case with EOCO has reopened the Equity Savings & Loans file, raising questions about when Equity's liquidity and asset problems began, how extensive its liabilities became, what assets were available to meet those liabilities and what regulators knew about its financial condition.
Key points
- The case involves a GH¢14 million debt owed by Equity Savings and Loans to SIC Life Savings and Loans.
- Equity Savings and Loans customers have reported difficulties accessing their savings.
- The Bank of Ghana still lists Equity Savings and Loans as a licensed savings and loans company.
