Former President, John Dramani Mahama is skeptical about the government’s 2020 timeline to pay back customers whose deposits were locked up following the collapse of some banks in the country.
He said it may even take the government more than a year to clear the monies owed the depositors of these collapsed financial institutions.
President Nana Akufo-Addo had assured that these customers will have their monies paid back to them in full.
The President had also directed the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana to pay every single customer their locked up cash.
But in a Facebook live engagement on Thursday, Mr. Mahama told the depositors to reconsider any thoughts of retrieving their cash because the government does not have the capacity to do as promised.
“The route government took on the banking sector was extreme and harsh and has created more harm. I think that the government took this [decision] too quickly. It has created a huge debt for the taxpayer. The President has said that he is going to pay depositors in full but that is not going to happen in 2020. Even if the government is going to pay that money, it is going to be spread over the next four years. So depositors can’t sit and think they are going to get their money.”
Mahama to pay depositors
Mr. Mahama who is also the presidential candidate for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) promised that his government will refund depositors’ funds in the shortest possible time.
“…We believe that we do owe depositors. When I come into government, we will make sure we will pay depositors their monies within the shortest possible time,” he said.
Banking crisis
The financial sector clean-up commenced by the Akufo-Addo administration in August 2017 led to the collapse of nine universal banks, 347 microfinance companies, 39 microcredit companies or money lenders, 15 savings and loans companies, eight finance house companies, and two non-bank financial institutions.”
Most recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the revocation of licenses of 53 Fund Management Companies.
The total estimated cost of the state’s fiscal intervention, excluding interest payments, from 2017 to 2019 was pegged at GHS16.4 billion.
The collapse of the institutions left clients in distress as many of the customers have been struggling to retrieve their savings and investments.