Out of GH¢6.5 billion in cedi deposit claims validated by Eric Nana Nipah, the receiver of the failed Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions (SDIs), an amount of GH¢6.39 billion has been paid in cash to depositors, leaving a balance of GH¢110 million being claims of related parties, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has disclosed.
These related parties, according to the BoG, constitute shareholders, directors and their affiliates of the defunct institutions who played active roles in the management and control of the failed institutions.
The Second Deputy Governor, BoG, Mrs Elsie Addo Awadzi speaking at a media sensitization programme organized by the Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies, Association of Finance Houses and the Ghana Association of Microfinance Companies said, “government has stepped in to provide financial relief for depositors and employees of the collapsed companies, so they did not have to wait for years to see if any value might be realized out of the assets of these institutions”.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Addo Awadzi has confirmed that the Central Bank, in order to mitigate the risk of reoccurrence of mass failure in the SDI sector, has revamped its supervision of the sector and is working on new rules on corporate governance and risk management to guide operators.
The BoG is confident that the operationalization of the Ghana Deposit Protection Scheme which started in October 2019 would also help to protect small depositors of SDIs in the event of failure.
The Deputy Governor asked SDIs to refine current business models to align to the policy objectives for which the sector was created through expansion of finance to the informal sector, micro businesses, low-income households, marginalized groups such as women entrepreneurs, startup businesses among others.
The Executive Secretary of the Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies (GHASALC), Tweneboah Kodua Boakye, speaking at the workshop, said players in the SDIs sector have learnt great deal of lessons from the cleanup exercise by the BoG.
The sector, he explained, has seen the need to build on the gains from the cleanup by delivering a resilient and a more sustainable industry.
“As we focus on pursuing sustainability, players are encouraged to invest in appropriate technologies, human capital and more initiatives that would benefit the customer” he added.
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