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The Ministry of Finance has been instructed by President Akufo-Addo to disburse GH¢1.5 billion to customers impacted by the banking sector cleanup.
Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, the Finance Minister, revealed this information over the weekend during a UK Town Hall meeting, stating that the payment is anticipated to occur between now and October.
While acknowledging that the government shouldn’t be held responsible for its investment choices, Dr. Adam also pointed out that errors were made in this instance and that the public was misinformed.
According to him, the effects of the clean-up have caused significant suffering for certain people, and some have even resulted in their deaths.
“Ideally, government should not be held responsible for the investment decisions of individuals, but this government is so caring.
“Mistakes were made and people were not well-informed, and they didn’t know who to consult to be advised, but we also know that the people who are affected are suffering, and we have heard that some people have died and others had to commit suicide.”
“This government is so caring that in the first place, we granted some bailout to all the affected and I want to tell you again that the President has directed that we do another bailout.
“So between now and October, we will release 1.5 billion Ghana Cedis to the affected people,”
The government in 2017 undertook the banking sector clean-up under the supervision of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
The exercise saw a reduction in the number of banks from 34 to 23, whilst 347 microfinance institutions, 15 savings and loans and eight finance houses had their licences revoked.
A number of the institutions that had the licences revoked were found to have varying degrees of corporate governance lapses.
The total estimated cost of the state’s fiscal intervention, excluding interest payments, from 2017 to 2019 was pegged at GH¢16.4 billion.
The government in 2020 claimed that it spent about GH¢21 billion on the banking sector clean-up exercise.
Some of the financial institutions that disagreed with the revocation sued the government and the cases are still pending in court.
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
