Former workers of defunct UT and Capital banks have served notice they will petition President Akufo-Addo this week, over the delay in the payment of their severance packages.
According to the former workers, after over eight months of being asked to go home due to the collapse of the banks, they have been adversely affected by the development.
GCB Bank in 2017, took over the two banks under a purchase agreement approved by the Bank of Ghana.
GCB Bank has since absorbed about four hundred of the workers.
Even though their exit packages have been duly calculated, the workers are yet to receive their due, leaving many of them in dire financial situations.
One of the affected workers, Ray Addai Danquah, told Citi News that their petition to the President is to plead with him to ensure their packages are released soon.
“We’ve made our problems known to the public and those directly involved. We intend to petition the President as our next line of action this week. We want to plead with the government to see to it that our exit pay is paid to us earlier, and also concerning our loans we want them to give us a discount. As it is now, most of us have outstanding loans which they are demanding full payment. These loans were taken for a period of years. There are people who have paid some, but if I’m not working and you are asking me to pay the full amount, we are thinking it is no fault of ours that the company went into receivership, so we are only pleading,” he said.
Meanwhile, private audit firm, PwC, is yet to complete the asset sale of the two banks.
Also, the government is expecting to issue a bond to raise 1.6 billion cedis to defray the debt due to the collapse of the banks.
The liabilities of the two banks, the BoG noted, had overwhelmed their assets, and the owners and managers of the banks were unable to increase their capital to address the insolvency.
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By: Jonas Nyabor/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
